Instead,the Open has been rescued in large part by the women’s world No.1,whose modest,apparently ego-free approach has earned her the key to a nation’s heart.
To have watched Ash Barty scythe her way through to the final,never dropping a set,was to witness quiet grace and immense skill wrapped around a determination so deep it must remain unknowable to the rest of us.
And there it was again in the final as she dug deep into that inner strength to end Danielle Collins’ run,refusing again to drop a set,even when she was down 5-1 in the last.
No histrionics here. No shrieking or backchat to officials or smashing of racquets.
Just tennis played at such a high pitch it left us gladdened and privileged to see such virtuosity.
There was the backstory,too:the young woman whose prodigious early success almost broke her. Exhausted and depressed,she gave the game away before returning and rising to the top through sheer will.
And there was this:Barty,an indigenous woman of the Ngaragu people,is just the second Australian Women’s Tennis Association singles no.1,after fellow Indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley. (Margaret Court,it should be noted,was No.1 before the WTA was established in 1975.)