By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Ash Barty brings dominance to the desert next week.
Last January, Barty battled back from a 1-5 second-set lead defeating Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6(2) in the Australian Open final becoming the first Aussie—man or woman—to capture the AO singles championship since Chris O’Neil in 1978.
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Tennis Channel analyst Lindsay Davenport believes Barty is the most complete player in the sport, tennis' smartest server and owns the all-court acumen to sustain her place at the top of tennis for the forseeable future.
"I think right now she's in a wonderful position on tour with just how she plays because nobody else plays like her. She creates so many problems for the other players," Davenport told the media in a conference call to promote Tennis Channel's Indian Wells coverage. "They haven't solved how do I handle a slice backhand considering I really only see it when I play her, and she's really taking advantage of that.
"Forehand is one of the big weapons on tour. She's the smartest server out on tour, most complete all-around player. Just has so many things going for her that the other players just haven't figured out how to solve yet."
Former world No. 1 Davenport suggests the biggest threat to Barty's time at the top is the woman in the mirror—the Olympic gold-medal champion suggests the 25-year-old Barty, who got engaged in the offseason to long-time partner Gary Kissick, won't be playing the pro circuit in her 30s.
"She's going to go down as obviously one of the great players," Davenport said. "I always question how long is she going to play. I don't think we'll see her playing very -- like as long as some other players. I just personally don't believe she's going to be playing in her 30s.
"She seems like she is a homebody that really wants -- doing what she loves to do right now but wouldn't hesitate for one second to stop doing it if she wanted to do something else, which you can do nothing but respect. So we'll see how many Grand Slams she can kind of accumulate, how many more weeks she'll get to."
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