Ash Barty admits she was ‘in tears’ hours before earning first Australian Open final spot | Tennis | Sport
Ash Barty is through to her first ever final at her home Grand Slam, the Australian Open. The world No 1 has dropped just 21 games en route to the championship match in Melbourne Park. She defeated former US Open finalist Madison Keys 6-1 6-3 in just an hour and two minutes, and paid tribute to fellow Aussie Dylan Alcott in her on-court interview after the quad wheelchair tennis legend ended his career earlier on Thursday.
Barty had reached the semi-final once before in 2020, losing to eventual champion Sofia Kenin.
The two-time Grand Slam champion had never gotten the chance to contest for her home Major title, but will now do just that in Saturday’s final.
The world No 1 has been in scintillating form in Melbourne this year, having dropped just 17 games coming into the semi-final against Madison Keys.
And she once again got off to a fast start, breaking in the first game of the match and racing to a 6-1 lead.
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Keys, who currently sits at world No 51 but has been ranked as high as No 7, started to settle into the match during the second set but the home favourite was too good, fending off a break point at 2-2 before going on to earn herself a break, closing out a 6-1 6-3 win in just over an hour to end a 42-year drought for an Aussie to make the women’s final.
Speaking after the match, Barty paid tribute to another top Australian player, whose career came to an end on Rod Laver Arena earlier in the day.
15-time Grand Slam champion Dylan Alcott announced that this Aussie Open would be his last and made it all the way to the quad wheelchair singles final, losing to second seed Sam Schroder.
The WTA world No 1 admitted she was “in tears” watching his on-court speech around an hour before she was due to walk onto court for her own match.
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