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Ashleigh Barty
Ash Barty secured the biggest success of her career this year but there could be much more to come. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Ash Barty secured the biggest success of her career this year but there could be much more to come. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Ash Barty tipped to join exclusive tennis grand slam club

This article is more than 5 years old

Australia’s No 1 knows there is still room for improvement, but the experts’ believe the sky is the limit for her in 2019

In the more than three decades since Pat Cash’s famous 1987 Wimbledon triumph, Australia has had eight changes of prime minister but just three grand slam singles champions: Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur. Next year, Tennis Australia’s head of women’s professional tennis, Nicole Pratt, believes Ashleigh Barty is capable of becoming the fourth.

First, some context: Pratt, a former top 40 singles player, is a respected and understated figure not prone to exaggeration. Barty has long been touted as a potential slam winner, and Pratt predicts the blossoming world No 15’s time could be nigh.

Barty’s victory at the season-ending WTA Elite Trophy was her third career title, but easily the most substantial. In doubles, Barty shared the 2018 US Open trophy with American CoCo Vandeweghe, and is now ranked seventh. In the Queenslander’s own words, “a truly phenomenal year”, indeed.

“We’re all really proud of Ash’s achievements – especially having taken a break from the game [from 2014 to 16],” Pratt says. “The courage she showed to come back and do what she’s done has been exceptional.

“This year she’s consolidated on the good year she had before, and it’s been even bigger and better. If she wants to put her hand up, which she obviously did to win the championships, I think anything’s possible for Ash next year.”

So, specifically, Pratt thinks Barty will be a grand slam singles contender in 2019? “Yes, I actually do. I think she’s a genuine prospect.”

Next question: if grass is her favourite surface, and seems to best suit her creative, adaptable, strong-serving game, where will the 22-year-old’s greatest chance come?

“Oh, she’ll hate me for saying this,” Pratt says, “but we actually have a joke with each other because I’ve always told her she’ll win the French before she wins anything else. And she disagrees.

“She would be the first person to say that if she is going to win one, she’d love it to be Wimbledon; that was her first and only junior grand slam, at such a young age [15], and that would be the one I think she would be mentally up for, but that in itself brings a lot of pressure.

“That’s probably why I’m saying the French – because she doesn’t put any pressure on herself there. And I just feel like from a game perspective, she has all the tools, and clay affords you the ability to use your complete toolbox.”

But first is the Australian Open, a title no home-grown player has won since Chris O’Neil in 1978. While there is no issue with the surface for Barty, there are different demands and distractions that come with a home slam that can complicate things. The small on-the-road team expands, as do the requests for tickets, and time; Pratt stresses that the big adjustment can be simply in dealing with the day-to-day.

On Monday night, Barty will vie with Alex De Minaur, John Millman and Dylan Alcott for the Newcombe medal, awarded annually to the country’s outstanding player. Meanwhile in Melbourne, Barty is scheduled to resume training with coach Craig Tyzzer after a three-week break.

Tyzzer says a key part of the pre-season emphasis would be on the backhand slice that rivals had identified as a weapon and started finding ways to counter. There will be a focus, too, on moving forward to finish off points at the net rather than allowing opponents to reset.

The coach nominated Wimbledon, where Barty lost to Daria Kasatkina in straight sets on the middle Saturday, as a turning point, and the US Open as another missed opportunity to improve on a grand slam best that remains the round of 16.

While mostly beating the players she was expected to, toppling those in the top bracket, and in the bigger tournaments, has proved more elusive, although the mental and emotional aspects are now more often matching the physical.

“Ash put in a lot of work in the back half of this year, and to end up winning against the players in the top 20 and finish off the year like she did really proves that she’s capable of achieving the results she wants,’’ Tyzzer says.

“Our goal was to establish ourself in the top 20, and she’s done that, so looking further forward we really want to make some inroads into the slams, and it’s not beyond Ash to certainly push to make the top 10 next year, and hopefully establish herself in there.”

Despite standing just 166 centimetres, Barty reached new heights on serve this season – leading the WTA for the percentage of service games and second serve points won, trailing only German Julia Goerges in the first serve category and finishing fourth for aces served (297) despite playing an average of eight matches less than those above her.

Coach and player celebrated an outstanding season with a couple of Tsingtao beers before leaving China, but one thing the compatible pair may not share is a numerical rating of the year just past. Told that Barty had awarded herself “as close to a 10 out of 10 as it gets” to this reporter 12 months ago, a bemused Tyzzer quips: “Did she? Doesn’t leave a lot of room for improvement, does it? Wow.

“I would have given her an eight last year, and I’d give her probably an eight-and-a-half this year. The good part is I don’t think she’s reached her full potential yet.

“There’s still room for improvement, and Ash knows that and she’s working fully on those areas. That’s a great sign for us because she’s not just not consolidated and going ‘well, this is the best I can do’. There’s still a long way to go, which is great.”

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