As the season comes to a close, one player that has attracted the attention of former world No.1 Steffi Graf is Australia’s Ash Barty.
The 21-year-old is currently at a ranking high of 20 after experiencing a breakthrough season. A former world No.1 junior player, Barty took take away from tennis to play cricket before returning to the sport in February 2016. The decision has turned out to be a successful one after she reached three WTA Finals in 2017. In March she won her first tour title at the Malaysian Open. Since then she had also progressed to the finals of Premier tournaments in Birmingham and Wuhan.
“It’s been well documented why I needed to take a break, wanted to take a break,” Barty told reporters in Zhuhai on Saturday.
“But I said when I came back I was refreshed and ready to go and that hard work has paid off because I feel great. I feel like if I had to, we could play again next week.”
Barty’s surge hasn’t gone unnoticed by Graf, who was also in Zhuhai as the tournament ambassador. The 22-time grand slam champion has hailed the comeback of the Australian as an ‘incredible story.’ At the start of the year, Barty was ranked 271st in the world. Since then, she has scored wins over four top-10 players and reached the third round of two major tournaments.
“I did see her at the very beginning of her career. You know she came and, I think, surprised all the players with her style early on in her career. I don’t completely know exactly how she came back to playing cricket and then back to tennis, but it is a pretty incredible story.” Said Graf.
“Seeing her play so well, especially this year from where she’s started to where she’s ending, it’s a pretty incredible speed of how she’s finding herself back into the tennis tour. The Australians always have an interesting style of tennis and she’s one of them. She’s got great hands and a lot of potential and it’s great to see her back in the sport of tennis.”
Ending the season with a win-loss of 29-14, Barty was shortlisted for the WTA’s comeback player of the year award. She missed out on the accolade to US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
Williams’ grand slam bid
During an extensive press conference, Graf also looked ahead to 2018 and the return of Serena Williams. The American hasn’t played since winning the Australian Open after giving birth to her first child in September. A baby girl called Alexis.
Should Williams win another major title, she would tie Margaret Court’s all-time record of 23 grand slam titles. Williams, Graf and Court are the only players in history to win 20 or more major titles in singles competition alone. Discussing the historic bid by Williams, Graf believes she has the ability to achieve it.
“It sounds from what I hear that she is looking to come back to tennis and, you know, everything that she has shown over her career just makes you believe that if she has that in her sights then she will go after it and achieve it,” Graf said.
There is yet to be a set plan regarding when Williams will return to the tour. The tournament director of the Brisbane Open, which takes place during the first week of January, said it is ‘highly unlikely’ that she will play in the tournament.
“The messaging through her agents was, ‘Thanks for reaching out’. But it is highly unlikely we will see Serena in Brisbane this time,’’ Geoff Quinlan told The Courier Mail.
Prior to her retirement from tennis in 1999, Graf played Williams twice during that year. Winning in Indian Wells, but losing in Brisbane.
