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Barty has spent the last year in her home
country of Australia, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and
Miami will be her first tournament abroad since February 2020.
"Tough playing tennis after traveling again. Quite a while since
I've done that," said Barty, 24, who added that a pair of
cancellations created "quite a wriggle around".
"I'm looking forward to feeling good in another day's time and
we'll be ready to go."
Barty, who was knocked out in the Australian Open quarter-finals
last month by Czech Karolina Muchova, is among the players who
elected to stay close to home as the world of tennis trudged
onward amid the global pandemic last year.
Like world number three Romanian Simona Halep, who is also set
to compete in Miami, Barty opted out of the U.S. Open last year
due to health and safety concerns.
Now she is mounting her title defence in Miami ahead of what she
hopes could be a long stretch on the road, facing a field
stacked with top talent including Halep and four-times Grand
Slam winner Naomi Osaka.
"When leaving Australia, it was quite hard to leave and quite
emotional to me. But I think we're excited to have the
opportunity to play the whole season," said Barty.
"We can't plan too far ahead. As we know, everything can still
change so rapidly.
"But we're planning as best as we can and just preparing for
some changes. We had to be fluid with some of our decisions, but
we're looking forward to it."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Toby Davis)
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