The Australian Ashleigh Barty poses with the trophy on Saturday after she won the women’s singles final at Wimbledon against the Czech Karolina Pliskova. Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP hide caption
Toggle caption
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
The Australian Ashleigh Barty poses with the trophy on Saturday after she won the women’s singles final at Wimbledon against the Czech Karolina Pliskova.
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
The barty party has started.
Number one Ashleigh Barty defeated Karolina Pliskova in three sets on Saturday, making it the first Australian to win Wimbledon since 1980. Her victory came 50 years after Barty’s idol, Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley, won her first Wimbledon title.
“It took me a long time to say that I dared to dream about it,” said 25-year-old Barty of her Wimbledon hopes. “To be able to live my dream with everyone here now has made it better than I could ever have imagined.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” said Barty after the game in the crowded All England Club stadium. “I was thinking about all the what-ifs. But I think when I came out in this place I felt at home in a way.”
Barty advanced to the final and was the favorite to win – and the first few minutes of play made a Barty championship seem like an inevitable. In just 11 minutes, she was already 4-0 ahead of 29-year-old Pliskova, who found it difficult to prove the skills that led her to the final.
Although Pliskova managed to make it through three games in the first set, Barty seemed poised for a quick win. But in the second sentence Pliskova – the former number 1 in the world – found a foothold. The massive serve of the 6’1 “Czech, who was missing at the beginning, came into play. Pliskova won a tiebreaker and carried through the second set 7: 6.
The next sentence would determine whether Barty could bring the Women’s Cup to Australia for the first time since Goolagong Cawley. “Just keep fighting,” Barty said to himself. “I was really proud of myself that I could back off and just move on.”
Barty won the third set 6-3.
“I hope I’ve made Evonne proud,” Barty told the crowd, who responded with thunderous applause.
