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In that 2017, Ashleigh won the title in Kuala Lumpur and lost the finals in Birmingham and Wuhan to crack the top-20 and stay there in 2018 as well following the title runs in Nottingham and Zhuhai. The Ipswich native opened the season with the final in Sydney and she will now play in her first Grand Slam quarter-final in front of the home fans in Melbourne following a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 triumph over a former Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round.
After dropping the opening set, Barty took charge in the second when she breezed past Sharapova to set up a decider where she had the momentum now. Carried by the partisan crown, Ashleigh won 10 of the last 11 games when she opened a 4-0 lead in the decider before a much tighter second part of the match.
Yeah, it started to get tight towards the end, Maria was never going to go away.
Proven champion. Time and time again it proves she will fight until the last point. I knew it was important in particular that 4-3 game to try and get out of that service game. Yeah, I gave myself opportunities to go 5-love and I think 5-2, as well.
Just couldnt execute. Was doing all the right things but very happy to come through in the end. I felt great on the court. You know, I think it was important for me to take the day yesterday to try and recover and get in as best shape as possible to make sure I could perform today.
Yeah, the physios have worked their magic and Im good to go. I try and serve as little or as few double faults as possible. Its a free point for my opponent. I know Maria went through a stage where she gave me a few free points consecutively.
Look, I try to look after my own service games and then deal with whatever comes from their serve. Yeah, the atmosphere was really unbelievable. It really was. That first match point, my ears were ringing. Yeah, I think I missed a couple of serves by a few millimeters, and went for the wrong serve on a second serve on match point.
But really happy to close it out in the end and, yeah, the crowd were unbelievable. I have never quite played in Rod Laver when its been that full, I think. Especially against a champion like Maria who has proven it time and time again that she can come back from any deficit.
Shes proven herself in the biggest stages. Its pleasing. I knew I had to just go up, try and hit my spots on serve and trust the fact that I have done the work. My team and I know the plans that we wanted to play to. When push comes to shove, try and execute that as best I can.
I needed to take that time away. I feel like I came back a better person on and off the court, a better tennis player. Yeah, for me, having that 18 months off was vital. You know, sitting down with my team late last year, it was one of the goals we set out that we wanted to go deep into slams, and I feel like that was the next step for me.
Its amazing that its happened in Australia and is happening in Australia. I have given myself the opportunity and the chance to play in front of the best crowd in the world on one of the best courts in the world and in my home slam.
There is absolutely nothing better. Oh, I think I love to play with freedom and fun and try and create as much variety as possible. Obviously, my game is built around my serve and forehand and bringing in a variety with the slice.
But there are no secrets in tennis. I think every day I try and challenge myself to add another string to my bow in a sense and try and become the complete player. I think thats my biggest goal. Against Petra, I has to win a couple more important points, I suppose, yeah, compared to Sydney.
Its exciting that I get to have another chance at Petra straightaway. Not often does that happen where you get to kind of have a replay against the same opponent. Really exciting, but, yeah, really pumped to have another chance here.
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