With 25 wins already to her name this season Ash Barty believes her current mental state wouldn’t be where it is if she hadn’t put in the world during the off-season.
The world No.1 is through to her fourth WTA final of the season after defeating Spain’s Paul Badosa in straight sets at the Madrid Open on Thursday. Barty is now on a nine-match winning streak after lifting the Stuttgart Open trophy just over a week ago. Prior to Stuttgart, she also won the Miami Open and Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne. Underlining her status as the highest ranked player on the women’s Tour.
Relishing in a surge in confidence, Barty believes the biggest impact on her success was the work she did with her team back in her native Australia. She missed almost 11 months of the Tour between 2020-2021 due to travelling concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is coached on the Tour by Craig Tyzzer who first started working with her at the start of 2016.
“I think a lot of the confidence I’ve gained this year was from the work that I’d done with my team prior to even playing my first match,” said Barty. “Without a doubt, you grow with each match that you play, every opportunity you get to try something new or try and rectify a few mistakes that you made in previous matches. That’s all learning.”
Elaborating further Barty says the confidence boost she gains from training is something she tries to use in matches and not vice versa. Although she has already recorded 11 wins over top 20 already this year. The only players who have beaten her so far in 2021 are Karolína Muchová, Danielle Collins and Badosa.
“I think the confidence comes from the practice and the preparation. Then the match is the opportunity to go out there and hone your craft,” the former French Open champion explains.
“I think with more matches that you play, it’s always a different opponent, different conditions. I think there are so many different variables in tennis, that’s the challenge, just trying to bring your best regardless of those conditions, regardless of who you’re playing, what surface, whether it’s windy, cold, rainy, whatever it is. Trying to adapt to that as best you can. I feel like we’ve (my team) had a really good balance of that this year.”
The 25-year-old says she analyses every match with her coach, regardless of what the outcome is. Earlier this week in Madrid she scored wins over Petra Kvitova and Iga Swiatek.
“For us, the growth never stops. When the growth stops, the game stops for me. It’s a massive part of me, always trying to get better every single day,” Barty concludes.
Barty has now won 16 consecutive matches on the red clay.
