Ash Barty stretches for a shot during the clash.Credit:Getty Images
Without having to contrive anything about herself, without feeling the need to trick up her game, without the impulse to put on some sort of “show”, Barty has her country eating out her hand. Her backhand slice, to be precise.
Melbourne Park is still operating at a COVID-fit 50 per cent capacity, but if they’d done a footy-style recount on Sunday night, there might have been questions to answer. There seemed to be people everywhere. There were people everywhere.
If some of those people had been guided through the day by tournament promos, they might have been surprised to discover that there was a player on the other side of the net to Barty. One gushed about the Barty showdown, but did not name her opponent. Barty’s damned good at being herself, but she would have found it hard to play her challenger, too.
Amanda Anisimova reacts after losing a point.Credit:AP
Anisimova, a young, tall and powerful American who two days previously had put Naomi Osaka out of the tournament, came with her own lofty expectations. At the French Open nearly three years ago, aged just 17, she should have beaten Barty in a semi-final. We all know what came next.
Since, a bewildering succession of women have won maiden major titles. On a day when the fifth seed, eighth seed and former champion Victoria Azarenka all bowed out, Anisimova might have thought that this was her turn. It’s what 20-year-olds do.
She had cause. In early manoeuvres, she unsettled Barty. The Australian served five faults in a row, for her a brain fart. Then she dropped her serve, unprecedented in any match this year. Some of Anisimova’s second serve returns came back at Barty’s feet like Mitch Starc yorkers.
Amanda Anisimova had beaten Naomi Osaka in her previous match but could not repeat the feat against Barty. Credit:AP
But as much as Anisimova was forcing Barty into mistakes, she was making literally twice as many of her own. That’s often how it is in contests between a power hitter and a craftswoman. We’ve been here before. In fact, it’s a bit of a trope in women’s tennis. It was the hallmark of Barty’s rivalry with Czech Petra Kvitova.
And it scored this match. For a typical winning Barty point, either an over-anxious Anisimova crashed the ball long or into the net, or a succession of Barty groundstrokes, each connected to the last, dampened and defused Anisimova’s power and ended with Barty hitting a winner into an open court.
There was one other element. Barty’s serve might not have the ballistic quality of, say, Serena Williams’. But it works. She leads the tour for service points won and, crucially, for breaks points saved. When Barty was serving for the first set, Anisimova was able to get only one ball back into play. It deflated her.
Ash Barty celebrates her win.Credit:AP
Bit by bit, Anisimova became the anti-Barty. Anti not in the sense of evil, but opposite. While Barty kept her poker face, Anisimova’s had helplessness written all over it, and in every syllable of her body language, too. Without saying a word, she was saying plenty, and for many.
In time, this will change. Post-grad teens aren’t renowned for their equilibrium. There is no harm in showing your feelings, of course, except that Barty could also see them.
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These are the devils that lurk in the minds of all sportspeople, ready to pounce on all who live on their athletic skill and wits, and it is only to be expected that they demand a say occasionally. They’re inside Barty, too; do not doubt that. She deals with them by being herself. As she says, she’s good at it. But it’s deceptively hard. Don’t try being Barty at home.
So it is that Ash Barty is taking what comes at the Australian Open in her stride. So it is that she went for another walk in Melbourne Park.
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Barty takes another step, simple as that
Source: Philippines Alive
