The Australian, who turned 25 on Saturday,
defeated fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka 3-6 6-0 6-3 in the final to
hoist her third WTA trophy this season and cement her place at
the top of the rankings.
The Sabalenka win followed victories over fourth seed Elina
Svitolina and sixth seed Karolina Pliskova after conceding the
first set in each.
"This week has been phenomenal for me," Barty said in her
post-match media conference.
"We’ve played a lot of tennis, a lot of matches.
"And I’ve certainly felt like I’m taking my tennis to kind of a
new level, in a sense of being able to be calm and play with
freedom and play without consequence in a way, just going out
there and try to bring my best every single point."
Barty's decision to stay home during the pandemic-blighted 2020
season rather than rejoin the Tour appears to have paid off,
with the Australian returning to the kind of form that led to
the 2019 French Open title and world number one ranking.
Although suffering a surprise defeat to 25th seed Karolina
Muchova in the Australian Open quarter-finals and a first-round
exit at the Adelaide International in February, Barty caught
fire after departing home shores, defending her Miami Open title
three weeks ago.
Sabalenka was her 10th successive win over top-10 opponents
dating back to her 2019 WTA Finals title in Shenzhen.
Barty capped a stellar week at the WTA 500 event in Stuttgart by
teaming up with American Brady to win the doubles, beating top
seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
"Tennis is a strange sport at times," Barty said. "Even though
you can be a set down, I didn’t feel I was very far off.
"I think it’s important to just continue to work in the right
direction, try to do right things ... And if you don’t (get the
result), you just keep going for the next time.
"I think that’s a massively important attitude to have."
The WTA Tour continues at the Madrid Open this week.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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