By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday June 23, 2019
For the first time in the tournament’s 37-year history, each of the WTA’s top three ranked players participated in the Nature Valley Classic draw at Birmingham.
In the end there was only one No.1.
Australia’s Ashleigh Barty emerged as the tournament’s champion--and the WTA's new No.1--on Sunday after a 6-3 7-5 victory over Germany’s Julia Goerges. The 23-year-old continues her run of torrid tennis after winning Roland Garros two weeks ago. She did not drop a set in five matches and only dropped more than four games in a set once.
Barty will climb to the top of the WTA’s rankings on Monday, becoming the WTA’s 27th No.1-ranked player in history and the first from Australia since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976.
"It's just been the most incredible journey for myself and my team," Barty told the crowd after the final.
That's no exaggeration. Barty’s circuitous route to World No.1 took her away from tennis at the end of 2014 and into the world of professional cricket for a year.
In 2016, with renewed enthusiasm, she returned to tennis and began the process of rebuilding her game and her ranking.
Three years later she is the hottest player in tennis, the reigning Roland Garros champion and the new World No.1. Barty will head to Wimbledon as one of a handful of favorites to win the title at SW19.
After World No.1 Naomi Osaka fell to Yulia Putintseva in the second round in Birmingham, Barty still needed to claim the title in order to secure the No.1 ranking. The pressure never seemed to bother her as she powered past five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the quarter-finals before knocking off Barbora Strycova in the semis.
“I keep it very simple. I don't focus on [rankings and expectations] at all,” Barty said of chasing the ranking after her semi-final win on Saturday. “It is not going to change the way that I sleep at night, if I don't get there or not. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.”
Easier said than done, but on Sunday Barty backed up her words and navigated the tricky terrain of Goerge’s powerful game with poise.
The German was overpowering at times, and even strutted out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Barty patiently bided her time and took the opportunities presented to her.
Barty kept the stat sheet clean—18 winners against 11 unforced—and chipped in nine aces while saving three of four break points. The Aussie saved a set point and then promptly broke Goerge’s serve in the next game to give herself a chance to serve for the title and World No.1.
She did not falter, clinching her 12th consecutive win at the one hour and 28 minute mark.
"I just had to go for it. I had no other choice because any time I left the ball hanging, Jules was absolutely punishing me,” she said. “It was an incredibly high quality match and a day to remember."