- Barty wins 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to seal second grand slam title
- Australian was ‘touch and go’ before the tournament
There was nothing in the world that was going to stop Ashleigh Barty from taking the Wimbledon title she had arrived on these shores to claim. Not the weight of the moment that tested her to her mental limits, nor the force of history amidst a run inspired by her mentor and idol, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, whose influence even spread to the scallop-patterned dress she wore, and not even the formidable, resilient opponent across the net.
The 25-year-old Barty won her second grand slam title by riding her nerves in a desperately tense contest between two world number ones, recovering after failing to serve out the match in the second set to beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 and become the first Australian woman, also a proud Indigenous woman, to win Wimbledon since Goolagong Cawley in 1980. Fifty years on from Goolagong Cawley’s maiden Wimbledon title, here she stands as the most fitting successor imaginable.