Tennis aces Ashleigh Barty and Amanda Anisimova prepare to face Melbourne Major

“I’m proud of myself when I fought, scrapped and hung there to find a way when I threw away the first set.”

After considering the match shortly after Anisimova finished the Australian Open in Naomi Osaka on Friday night, Barty said it was a crucial moment in her career.

“I remember to this day what I said to myself in that change of goals,” he said.

“Since then, it has kept me in a pretty good position, sticking to those values ​​and continuing to try and grow every time in the field and in problem solving and coping.

“It hasn’t worked every time, but it has made me really comfortable and made me feel part of the field. I can do it my own way. I will become unique. I get to try and have fun with it. ”

People following Barty have enjoyed the fun ever since. The 25-year-old won the French Open final. He reached the top of the world a couple of weeks later in Birmingham.

A few weeks later that summer, she has retained her first place and recently joined Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova as the only women to finish first at the end of the season three times in a row. years.

It looks strange and even more absurd after his success at Wimbledon last July, but it was a time when Barty’s reign as the world’s number one was questioned.

Osaka has been a superior player on hard fields in recent years, as evidenced by the two grand slam championships he has won in Melbourne and New York since 2018. But as Japanese champion coach Wim Fissette said in an interview ahead of the Australian Open, Barty has proven to be more than a valuable number one.

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The Belgian, who coached several grand slam champions, remembers that Barty was a special talent when he won the 2011 Wimbledon Girls Championship.

“I remember it and just always [felt] Like to see Ash as an incredible talent, an incredibly good player and a player we always knew [that] if he can just play and have fun and be happy there, he will always be among the top five players, he said Age and Herald.

“I’m really happy for her. I mean, she’s a great number one in the world. She’s a very popular girl. She plays beautiful tennis.

“The only question for me, like a few years ago, was,‘ Will he be like a real master? [Does she] is there a real master mentality to be number one in the world? ‘ He definitely showed that he has that mentality. “

Rising Austrian star Clara Tauson is one year younger than Anisimova and belongs to a generation that includes Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu.

The 19-year-old is considered the head of tennis, watching as many matches as possible and being able to tell the strengths and weaknesses he is now trying to knock down on the field.

Tauson, whom Barty won at the US Open last year, has no doubt that whenever an Australian is at his peak, he will be particularly hard to beat.

“Of course I’ve watched him a lot. He’s always on TV,” he said. “I didn’t go to that match with the attitude that I had to win that match because he’s the number one player in the world and from my point of view he’s the best at the moment.

“If he hits his game, I think he’s unbeatable right now. I respect him so much that I might have had almost too much when I went to that match.

The fourth-round match between Barty and Osaka was very much expected from the moment the draw was unveiled at the Australian Open on Thursday.

But Anisimova, whose father and coach Konstantin died a few months after the 2019 Roland Garros semi-finals, has rediscovered her best shape after a couple of test seasons.

After conquering the woman who has won the most grand slam tournaments in the last three years, Anisimova is now constantly challenging a highly successful champion.

“He’s an amazing player. I watch him a lot. I love his game. He’s very consistent. He’s a champion,” Anisimova said. “So it’s going to be exciting to face him, another amazing opportunity for me.”

Barty once needed time away from tennis to find himself. Anisimova has found her way through the tragedy. And the two-time grand slam champion knows that American is a rare talent.

“In this situation where we are, Amanda has played a fantastic tournament,” Barty said.

“He deserves his place in the 16th semifinals. I think the match will be exciting. It’s good for both of us to get out and test ourselves against each other.