Ashleigh Barty wins the Australian Open 2022

Ashleigh Barty ended her home nation’s long wait for a Grand Slam women’s singles champion with a thrilling victory over Danielle Collins.

The world number one continued her perfect run throughout the tournament, in which she didn’t drop a single set. She won 6-3 in the first set, and then fought back from 5-1 down to win 7-6 (7-2), the home crowd celebrating her victory every set of the way.

The win is Barty’s third Grand Slam title, after winning the 2019 French Open and last year’s Wimbledon. It has been a dominant year for Barty – she has won all 11 of her singles matches this year, and claimed the Adelaide International title earlier this month. Meanwhile, in her first Grand Slam final, Collins put in a strong showing, fighting back after endometriosis surgery last year threatened to suspend her tennis career indefinitely.

It was very much home-field advantage for Barty as the match began, with the Australian player dominating from the back of the court. In the fifth game, Barty saved a break point, and got her momentum going. It appeared that the pressure then struck Collins, who landed a double fault to hand her opponent a 4-2 lead. Barty looked in control, her impressive forehand always ready to respond to the American, and the ace that closed out the first set looked easy.

The home crowd were buoyed at this point, feeling as if Barty’s victory was inevitable and soon, based on that first set. Yet Collins was not to be written off, and she started to make the second set her own. With a break of serve, she announced her presence, racing into a 3-0 lead. And she kept going, Collins piling on the pressure, returning brilliantly and to an extent winning the support of a local crowd that were largely against her. It was a 5-1 lead for Collins, and it was hard to see a comeback for Barty at this point.

But come back she did. Barty rallied, winning the next four games in a row to level things at 5-5 – Collins was actually two points away from levelling the match at 5-3, but Barty produced two forehand winners that fuelled her fight-back. Collins held on the next game, before Barty took things into a tie-breaker. Collins went long, and then Barty won her next two serves. An amazing rally pushed things to 4-0, and then Collins got on the board in this most pivotal game. The American got one more point as the result of a missed Barty serve, but the world number one really seized the moment, writing herself in the Australian Open history books.

We saw the natural talent and impressive resilience that proved, if there were any doubt, that Ashleigh Barty is an undisputed champion

After the win, Barty said: “First and foremost, I have to say congratulations to Danielle and your team. I know you’ll be fighting for many more of these in the future. To my team, wow. I said numerous times I’m so lucky to have so many people here that love and support me. We started right together from the start in the second part of my career. I love you guys to death, you’re the absolute best in the business.

“As an Aussie, the most important part of the tournament is being able to share it with so many people. This crowd is one of the most fun I’ve ever played in front of. You brought so much joy, you relaxed me and forced me to play my best tennis. This is just a dream come true for me and I am so proud to be an Aussie.”

Collins said: “I think I owe a big congratulations to Ash on a phenomenal two weeks and phenomenal couple of years. I really admire you as the player you are, the variety in your game, and hopefully I can implement some of that into mine.”

Four-time Australian Open champion Evonne Goolagong-Cawley presented Barty with the tournament trophy – based on her form this weekend, there’s no reason she shouldn’t add more titles to her collection in the future. On Saturday, we saw the natural talent and impressive resilience that proved, if there were any doubt, that Ashleigh Barty is an undisputed champion.