There is no better way to come into a grand slam than rested, eager and confident. Ashleigh Barty ticks all those boxes. Last September, when Barty ended her season early after losing to Shelby Rogers in the third round of last year’s US Open, she did so with the express intention of focusing on the Australian summer. Already that decision, which involved skipping the WTA Finals, looks to be working out well for the world No 1.
Strict quarantine requirements in her native Queensland meant that, had Barty chosen to defend her title in Mexico, it would probably have been December by the time she made it home. Instead, while her rivals grappled with flying balls and failing breath in the high-altitude conditions of Guadalajara, Barty was finally able to sit back with family and friends and reflect on a stellar season. Six months on the road had brought a career-best five titles – most notably at Wimbledon, where she ended a 41-year wait for an Australian women’s champion – and a third successive year-end No 1 crown.
Now, after a solid pre-season and a winning start to the year in Adelaide, where she won both the singles and doubles titles, Barty goes into her home slam lightly raced and ready to face the challenge of becoming the first woman since Christine O’Neil in 1978 to lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. Not that she will lose any sleep if things don’t work out.
“I can’t do any more than try,” says Barty, whose best performance at Melbourne Park came two years ago, when she reached the semi-finals.
“That’s all I can do. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I just have to hope that everyone understands I’m giving it my best crack. It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to. But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try and give yourself the best chance. That’s all you can do.”
If she is to improve on last year’s unexpected quarter-final defeat to Karolina Muchova, Barty – who will play the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in her opener – will first need to get past Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, whom she is scheduled to meet in the fourth round.
After taking a four-month break following September’s shock defeat to Leylah Fernandez at the US Open, Osaka marked her return with an impressive run in Melbourne last week before an abdominal injury forced her to withdraw from her semi-final against Veronika Kudermetova. Happy and excited, she says, to be back at the scene of two of her four grand slam victories, the 24-year-old remains the player to beat on hard courts.
“Playing in the Australian Open means a lot to me,” says the 13th-seeded Osaka, who will open her title defence against Colombia’s Camila Osorio Serrano.
“It’s not the first slam that I won, but I feel like starting the year off here really kind of builds momentum throughout the year. I also think there’s like a different feeling I get when I come to Australia. Everyone is really warm and welcoming. I just remember all the tough battles that I’ve had here. It’s definitely a very positive feeling.”
Another player with a revitalised outlook is Garbiñe Muguruza. The Spanish third seed comes into the tournament buoyed by last season’s brilliant run to the WTA Finals title, and with a renewed sense of clarity about her game and goals. Her decision to pull out of Adelaide suggests she has learned from the experience of two years ago, when she played tournaments on two different continents in the build-up to the Australian Open, falling ill in the process, before running out of steam in the final against Sofia Kenin. This time around she is rested and ready.
“I really focused on getting the needed rest [in the off-season], because you’re not losing your tennis,” says Muguruza, who was beaten by Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals of this week’s Sydney Tennis Classic. “I think you prioritise getting back the energy, refreshing the mindset and everything.
“I skipped Adelaide. I normally like to play the first tournament of the year, but I felt like in these circumstances why not go to Sydney. I’m adapting really, every week, to what I feel.”
Muguruza’s willingness to trust to instinct offers a further indication of her renewed belief. Drawn in the same quarter as sixth seed Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian whom she beat twice at the WTA Finals – and who will no doubt be nursing a few psychological scars after missing seven match points against Barbora Krejcikova in Sydney – the 28-year-old has the air of a player who feels her best years lie ahead.
After her WTA Finals win, her most significant title in four years, Muguruza spoke of how she had never stopped believing she could still produce the tennis that earned her the French Open and Wimbledon titles. Contemplating her opener against Clara Burel of France, the world No 77, she returned to the theme.
“I feel a lot of emotions when I step on to the Rod Laver court, because I was very close to having this grand slam in my pocket, if that makes sense. I guess I’ll have to try and try as many times as I can. But I’m excited. It gives me the certainty that I can do it. Also, the year when I reached the final was a very tough physical year for me because I got so sick. But I made it.
“Yeah, why not do it again? Of course, it’s complicated. You have to put so many things together. You know how it is, it’s hard. But I’ve done it and I believe more than ever that I can do it again.
“I think I’ve always had that belief. I think always believing so strongly in myself whether I was playing good or less good, is what make me just be at the highest level for so many years … Sometimes it gives you a certainty and a character, it builds you different, if you have those grand slams.”
That outlook could prove decisive should Muguruza make her projected last-four appointment with Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian second seed, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park, has endured a torrid start to the season, losing in Adelaide to Rebecca Peterson and Kaja Juvan – respectively ranked 82nd and 89th – and serving a total of 39 double faults in the process.
Reduced to serving underarm at times against Peterson, the distraught Sabalenka was asked by chair umpire Julie Kjendlie if she was OK. “Nothing is wrong, it’s a technical problem,” Sabalenka replied. “I cannot serve better.”
She can, of course, as last year’s barnstorming progress to the last four at Wimbledon and the US Open attests. But with an Aussie awaiting in the first round in the shape of wildcard Storm Sanders, and a potential quarter-final against seventh seed Iga Swiatek, she will need to make the required adjustments to her game and mindset quickly.
Arguably the most intriguing question is who will come through the second quarter of the draw, where Krejcikova and Paula Badosa, two players who made giant strides last season, are projected to face off in the last eight. Krejcikova has been a model of consistency since her breakthrough victory at Roland Garros last summer, and her run to the final in Sydney would suggest she is not about to rest on her laurels after finishing 2021 with three titles. The bad news for the Czech is that it was Badosa, a player tipped by many as a potential world No 1, who came between her and the title, the battling Spaniard prevailing in a third-set tiebreak to record her third win over Krejcikova in three matches.
The great unknowable is how Emma Raducanu will fare. It is barely four months since the British teenager came through qualifying to win the US Open without dropping a set, but she seems to have packed in a lifetime of experience since, with a veritable blizzard of sponsorship deals and high-profile engagements attracting criticism that she has taken her eye off the ball.
While it is true that Raducanu has struggled to reproduce the level she showed at Flushing Meadows, such brickbats are patently unfair. She is hardly the first young champion to experience a dip in form after life-changing success, and it is perhaps revealing that she chose to take aim at her critics in a new Nike commercial that shows her hitting strokes against a changing backdrop of short quotations including: “distracted”, “fluke” and “one-hit wonder”. The advert ends with the slogan: “World off. Game on.”
“The video speaks for itself,” says Raducanu. “That’s how I feel.”
Contracting Covid in Abu Dhabi last month has hardly helped Raducanu’s progress, undermining her hopes of using the off-season to improve her strength and conditioning. The 17th seed wears her elevated status lightly, however, and while others may have lofty expectations, she is just grateful to be making her main draw debut at Melbourne Park.
“I think it’s going to be a very cool experience to play here in the main draw for the first time,” says the 19-year-old, who faces former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the opening round.
“I played a few years ago in the juniors. Coming back here playing in the main draw so soon, I feel quite proud of this achievement. It is a bit of a different feel because, back then, we weren’t allowed in the main area. It’s quite fun to see and look around.”
It is too easy to overlook the reality that this is her first full season on the tour, such has been the meteoric nature of her rise. For the time being, however, Raducanu – who now has an experienced, respected coach in her corner in Torben Beltz – is focusing on small steps rather than more giant strides.
“As long as the trend is trending upwards, just a matter of small fluctuations, I think I can be proud,” she says when asked about the hurdles she has encountered since the US Open. “Whatever challenge that is, I feel kind of ready to face it now.”