For the first time in 44 years, the Australian Open has a home-grown women’s singles champion and her name is Ashleigh Barty.
The 25-year-old Queenslander and consensus world No. 1 captured her third career Grand Slam singles title inside Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night over Danielle Collins, 6-3, 7-6(2)—rallying from 5-1 down in the second set.
Barty is the fifth Australian woman in the Open era to win the singles title at her home major and first since unseeded Chris O’Neil triumphed in 1978. She didn’t lose a set in seven matches and dropped only 30 games.
As Australians, we're extremely lucky to have the tennis history and the rich history that we do, particularly here at the Australian Open. ... To be a very small part of an amazing history in tennis as an Australian is really, really neat." - Ashleigh Barty
The 87-minute match, despite finishing in straight sets, was packed with ebbs and flows. From 2-2 in the first set—where she saved a break point with a first-ball forehand winner that just kissed the far sideline—Barty quickly moved ahead by winning four of the last five games. It soon seemed, though, that Collins halted her momentum in its tracks: feeding off adversity in the face of an in-form Barty and a partisan Aussie crowd, Collins surged into her first lead of the match and had two opportunities on serve to send it to a decider.
However, she never reached set point. Dropping serve to 30 at both 5-1 and 5-3, Collins also had a 15-30 opening on return in the 12th game, but Barty rose to the occasion each time. She hit three of her 30 winners in the match in the tiebreak, ending her country's long wait for another champion with a final finishing forehand.
"I felt like all fortnight long I've done a pretty job of nullifying half chances from my opponents and being able to really serve well when I needed it most. I think tonight I probably didn't serve my best and against one of the best returners on the globe, it's hard to be able to be on the back foot all the time," Barty said.
"Once it was 1-5 down, I just wanted to try and shift and be a little more aggressive, adjust a couple of things tactically just to get momentum if we went to a third. Tennis is a funny game with the scoring system and things can change so quickly it feels like at times.
"It was just important for me to try and stay in touch, and I knew that the crowd would love it if I could stay close and get involved. It was incredible to ... turn nothing into something and be able to get some real momentum throughout that set."
Barty improves to 15-6 in her career in WTA singles finals, with a 9-2 mark since she first ascended to the top of the WTA rankings in 2019. With her victory, she joins Serena Williams as active WTA players to own major titles on the three different surfaces, and runs her record to 11-0 to start 2022 after also winning the WTA 500 in Adelaide.
"To be honest, I don't really feel like I belong with those champions of our sport. I'm still very much learning and trying to refine my craft and try and learn every single day and get better and better," Barty said.
"To have a Grand Slam title on each surface is pretty amazing. I never probably thought it would ever happen to me. So [I'm] very, very lucky and very humbled and privileged to be able to be a part of it."
By just advancing to the final, Barty secured her top-ranked status into next week, which will be her 113th at No. 1. She now sits just four weeks behind seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin in the all-time annals. Collins will make her Top 10 debut on Monday, up from her current ranking of No. 30, and she also supplants Sofia Kenin as the top-ranked American woman.
"For a while I've wanted to be a Top 10 player. It was a goal of mine last year, I fell a little bit short. To reach it this early on in the season has meant the world to me. I think that I just have to keep going day by day and just working towards my goals. There's other things that I'm going to want to achieve moving forward," Collins said.
"It was a great event for me. Accomplished some new things. Learned a lot of new things. Certainly have some areas to improve, which is a good thing. [I] played against a great competitor tonight and it was a fun battle."
Australian Women’s Singles Champions at the Australian Open
Margaret Court (1969, 1970, 1971, 1973)
Evonne Goolagong (1974-76, 1977 — December)
Kerry Melville Reid (1977 — January)
Chris O’Neil (1978)
Ashleigh Barty (2022)
Having added an Australian Open title to her Roland Garros and Wimbledon crowns, Barty will arrive in New York later this year with the opportunity to complete the career Grand Slam.
