Ash Barty’s rise in the women’s game this season hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially by former world No.1 Martina Hingis.
Hingis, who won five grand slam titles during her career, described the playing style of the Australian as something different to what has been on the tour over the past decade. This year Barty clinched her maiden grand slam title at the French Open, as well as three other titles. In October she triumph at the WTA Finals by defeating Elina Svitolina. Bringing her prize money earnings for the year to just over $10.8 million, which is almost twice more than any other female player. Second place Simona Halep made $5.9M.
“There’s a lot of things she does that’s really great, what I love about her game is just her fluidity,” Hingis said during an interview with Tennis Australia.
“I think before she had all the shots but didn’t always use the right things at the right time, which was good enough in juniors.
“But now I think she’s kind of found herself. She’s grounded now and she knows what she wants and I just love the variety about her game.
“She has all the shots and the repertoire is so big and again you can call her game tennis. It’s not just boom boom and full power.
“She’s got that too – obviously, she’s a very strong girl – but she’s also got a different style to what we’ve probably seen in the last 10 years.”
As to how Barty managed to climb her way to the top, Hingis believes her brief hiatus from the sport had a big impact. The 23-year-old took a break from tennis between 2014-2016. During that period, she played cricket for Brisbane Heat in the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League.
“Since she’s been away and become No.1 and won a slam, she doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody,” said Hingis.
“Now you just feel like she’s out there because she loves it and loves what she’s doing and that’s why she’s had this success.
“Before maybe it was ‘okay, I’m playing for someone else or because of someone else’.
Hingis herself retired from the sport twice before staging comebacks. Doing so in 2005 and 2013. During her career, she won 43 WTA titles and spent 209 weeks in the top spot. She is the youngest grand slam champion of the 20th century after winning the 1997 Australian Open at the age of 16.
At present Barty leads the WTA rankings by almost 3000 points ahead of nearest rival Karolina Pliskova. Next month she will be hoping to be the first home player to win an Australian Open singles title since 1978. However, she is yet to win a WTA event in her home country.
“I can’t wait to play in front of the Aussie crowd again and go out there and give it my all,” she recently told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Regardless of whether I win or lose I think the Aussie public love the fact when Australians come out and do give it a crack.
“That’s what I can promise – I’ll go out there and give it my best and then whatever happens, happens.”
Barty will start her 2020 campaign at the Brisbane International.
