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One of Australian sport’s longest droughts is finally over, after Ashleigh Barty defeated Danielle Collins in straight sets to become our first homegrown champion of the Australian Open since Chris O’Neil in 1978.
The Ipswich native entered the tournament as the favourite to win the title but not before a brutal draw that saw former champions Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka, as well as other heavyweights Barbora Krejcikova and Paula Badosa loaded onto her side.
As she progressed through the tournament swimmingly, she saw several of her rivals crash out one after the other, thus clearing her path to the title, en route to which the highest ranked opponent she faced was 21st seed Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals.
In the final, she ended up facing 27th seed Danielle Collins – the fourth consecutive American player she faced at this tournament, as well as the fourth American player she had also faced en route to her maiden grand slam title win at the French Open in 2019.
Given the gulf in experience between the two players, it was no surprise that the Australian started as the pre-match hot favourite – and after a confident start, a break in the sixth game proved to be enough for her to take the opening set 6-3.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
After Collins held to start the second set, some errors from Barty would see her drop serve, thus falling behind 0-2. The American then consolidated for 3-0, and then secured another break to put herself into the position to serve for the second set at 5-1.
However, Barty would work her way back into the set, winning four straight games for 5-all, and after both held their service games to the death, a tiebreak would be required to settle the matter.
The Queenslander would easily dominate the breaker, and raised four championship points, hitting a forehand winner past Collins on the first to end a 44-year drought of homegrown champions at the Australian Open.
She was presented with the trophy by her idol, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, while the who’s who of Australian sport were also present for the occasion, including Chris O’Neil, our last local champion, as well as Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, Russell Crowe and even Trent Cotchin.
As we all know, it was Barty who presented the AFL premiership cup to Cotchin and Richmond coach Damien Hardwick after the Tigers won the 2020 grand final which was held at the Gabba.
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ICYMI: World No.1 @ashbarty presents the Premiership Cup to @tcotchin9 and Damien Hardwick ????#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/XXQm52SVNO
— AFL (@AFL) October 25, 2020
While Cotchin did not return the favour by presenting her with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy, as had been joked by many on Twitter, the 268-game Richmond veteran was seen in the Rod Laver Arena dugout congratulating Barty after the post-match presentation.
Unbloodybelievable, @ashbarty ???????????? https://t.co/4kSCnxiLeB
— Richmond FC ???? (@Richmond_FC) January 29, 2022
Not only did she become our first local winner of this tournament since O’Neil saluted at Kooyong in 1978, she also became the first local to win at Melbourne Park after it opened for business in 1988.
Pat Cash and Lleyton Hewitt had previously reached the men’s final at the precinct, but both fell short in their quest for local glory, with Cash losing a five-set thriller (8-6 in the last) against Mats Wilander in 1988 and Hewitt losing in four sets to Marat Safin in 2005.
Back to the present now, and Barty did not face a single top-20 player on her way to the title, neither did she drop a set throughout, thus becoming the first player since Serena Williams in 2017 to win the tournament in such flawless fashion.
She also became the first top seed since Williams in 2015 to win the tournament, and joined the legendary American as the only active female players to have won major tournaments on hard, clay and grass courts.
It was back on the opening night of the 2014 tournament that Barty became the student of a Rod Laver Arena masterclass by Williams, then ranked world No.1 and coming off a dominant 2013 season which netted her 11 titles and over $12 million in prize money.
Though Barty lost easily, there were predictions of a bright future for the Australian, who had won the junior Wimbledon title in 2011 and was forecast for bigger things ahead, from the American herself.
But after struggling with the weight of expectations and extended time away from home, the Queenslander decided to put a pause on her tennis career in September 2014, biding her time playing cricket for the Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League.
Many feared for her immediate welfare and future in the game, however some words of encouragement from Williams and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua would provide the seeds for her comeback to the sport, which she commenced in 2016.
Now a different player than before, Barty started making progress up the rankings, culminating in her winning the French Open and then ascending to world No.1 in 2019, before she claimed the sport’s holy grail at Wimbledon last year.
But winning the Australian Open has surely got to rank as her biggest career highlight, as she achieved what others such as Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur could not during the pinnacle of their respective careers.
Having now claimed three of the four majors, her next goal will be to complete her set of grand slam titles at the US Open – a tournament where she has yet to reach the quarter-finals – later this year.
As far as the other majors are concerned, she does not have many rankings points to defend at the French Open, where she was forced to retire due to injury in the second round last year, but her ultimate test will come at Wimbledon, where she will be defending maximum points.
At the All England Club, she will want to avoid the same fate as Lleyton Hewitt, who in his first match as defending champion suffered a shock four-set defeat to Croatian serving machine Ivo Karlovic in 2003.
Coincidentally, that was the same major tournament in which Rafael Nadal made his grand slam debut, and Roger Federer defeated Mark Philippoussis in straight sets to win the first of his 20 major titles.
Back on topic to finish off, and congratulations to Ashleigh Barty, who we can proudly call our 2022 Australian Open women’s singles champion, and commiserations to Danielle Collins, who has enjoyed a stunning run to the final only to fall short.
Women’s championship result: [1] Ashleigh Barty (AUS) defeated [27] Danielle Collins (USA) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
This leaves us with only the women’s doubles and the men’s singles champions to be decided tonight.
In the women’s doubles final, the top-seeded Czech pairing of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova will come up against first-timers Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia, who is the first Brazilian woman to reach a major doubles final since 1968.
The latter pair qualified for the final after upsetting the second-seeded Japanese pairing of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in three sets in their semi-final.
Then, in the evening, Rafael Nadal will start as the favourite to land a record-breaking 21st major men’s singles title and break a tie he holds with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic when he comes up against Russian second seed Daniil Medvedev in the men’s singles final.
The Spaniard will be keen to break a 13-year drought at Melbourne Park, having not saluted here since 2009 when he defeated Federer in a five-set classic that did not end until after midnight and prevented the Swiss maestro from equalling the then-record of 14 major men’s singles titles held by Pete Sampras.
Playing the role of villain is Medvedev, who exploded at the umpire (for which he copped a $12,000 fine) towards the end of the second set in his semi-final win against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday night.
In his fourth major final, the Russian will be looking to prevent Nadal from reaching 21 major singles titles, in the same manner that he stopped Djokovic from doing so with a straight-sets win in the US Open final last year.
A win for Medvedev would see him become the first Russian man to win this tournament exactly 17 years to the day since Marat Safin won it in 2005, otherwise a win for Nadal would see him join Djokovic among active players in winning each of the four majors at least twice.
Rod Laver Arena
From 4:00pm AEDT
Women’s doubles final – [1] Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)/Katerina Siniakova (CZE) vs Anna Danilina (KAZ)/Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA)
From 7 – pm AEDT
Men’s singles final – [6] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs [2] Daniil Medvedev (RUS)
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