Ashleigh Barty ended a 42-year drought by qualifying for the Australian Open tennis final.
The world’s best player Barty, who defeated American Madison Keys 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday, needs one more win to become the first player from Australia since 1978 to win the tournament’s women’s singles of the Grand Slam played in his country.
Danielle Collins will try to stop him. The 28-year-old American delivered a dominant performance to knock out 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-4, 6-1 in the other semi-final at Melbourne Park on Thursday.
The final match is to take place on Saturday. Collins described as “spectacular” the opportunity to face Barty in the final of this major tournament played in the lands of the Australian.
Barty became the first Australian since Wendy Turnbull in 1980 to qualify for the women’s singles final at this tournament. Chris O’Neil is the last player from this country to have won it, two years ago.
Barty already has two Grand Slam titles to his name, following triumphs on grass at Wimbledon in 2021 and clay in Paris in 2019. Collins will be making his first appearance in the final of one of four major tournaments. Neither semi-final lasted very long.
Barty had 20 game winners to only 8 for Keys. She converted four of her six break-service chances and saved the only two break points she faced on her serve against the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up.
In six games since the start of the tournament, Barty has lost just one game on his serve.
“It’s unreal. Honestly, it’s just amazing,” Barty said in the on-court interview after his match. “I love coming here and playing in Australia. »
“Coming from Australia, we are extremely spoiled to be able to play in our own backyard. Now we have an opportunity to play for a title. It’s unreal. »
Ranked 27and seeded Collins needed just 78 minutes to beat 7th-seeded Swiatekand. The winning cross forehand she made to give herself her first match point illustrated very well the level of her game.
She finished the duel with 27 winners, committed only 13 unforced errors and imposed her relentless energy on the match.
She started each of the two sets with service breaks and a 4-0 lead.
“It will be spectacular”
“We had some amazing battles,” Collins said of Barty. “To face the world number 1 in her country, it will be spectacular”, added the American, semi-finalist at Melbourne Park, in 2019, for what was then the best performance of her career at a Grand Slam tournament.
Keys was making her first appearance in the Australian Open semi-finals since 2015, where she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams. It was the last year the favorite won the women’s singles at Melbourne Park.
Keys came in front of Barty with a career-high 10-game winning streak. She had notably won a preparatory tournament in Adelaide – it was her first title since 2019 at a WTA tournament – and her first round match at the Australian Open against her compatriot Sofia Kenin, champion of the same tournament in 2020.
With 11 games won in 2022, Keys already has as many victories as in the entire 2021 season, at the end of which she slipped out of the top 50 in the women’s ranking. It is expected to climb back into the top 30 next week.