The historical triumph of Ashleigh Barty at the Australian Open 2022, who won the home Slam 44 years after Chris O’Neil, has definitively consecrated the overwhelming superiority of the current number one in the WTA ranking over all opponents.
The success in the final over the American Danielle Collins with a score of 6-3 7-6 earned the Australian tennis player the third career Slam after Roland Garros in 2019 and Wimbledon in 2021. Craig Tyzzer, Ashleigh Barty’s coach, has spoke during a press conference after the Australian’s triumph and revealed several details about the tennis player.
To the coach of the world number one was asked if there is room for improvement in Barty’s game, which at the moment seems to have reached a near-perfect level. He said: “There are still areas we are working on and she needs to improve.
I won’t tell you which ones because I would reveal too many secrets, but she still has room for improvement. What I think she does best of all is that she enjoys herself. She enjoys playing. For example, tonight we knew of the pitfalls Danielle Collins would bring.
How do we beat a player who hits corners and kills you if you drop a short ball? For her, this is the best part. She likes to play and she likes these challenges. In other areas such as service, there isn’t much work to be done, but in other areas there is.
She needed to take a break after Wimbledon. We played a little more than expected. She was exhausted. She is very tired mentally.
Tyzzer: “Ashleigh Barty still has room for improvement”
She worked hard to win at Wimbledon and put a lot of pressure on herself to get to the US Open, but she struggled there.
She didn’t make sense to play the end of the season. That’s why I told her to drop everything, go to the preseason and wait for the Australian summer. That victory in Paris, at the Roland Garros, was unexpected. Her level was nowhere near comparable to her current level.
I think her consistency, her ability to play and adapt to different players, even today, in different conditions, was her great improvement. She is a much better tennis player than she was in 2019. I think she is now a better player on hard courts.
Ash loves grass, but Wimbledon is very different now. It’s like a slow surface. Many opponents have a hard time playing against her because she loves low bounce and slow grass. I always thought her first Grand Slam would come on the hard court, but I was wrong.
What she has achieved is impressive. US Open? The tournament has to change the ball for them. They use a different ball for boys and girls. For Ash it is a terrible ball. It is very light. It was the only tournament last year where she used polyester string so she had some ball control.
If they keep holding that ball, no one like Ash will ever win there. If they don’t change it, she won’t win it.”