Ashleigh Barty in dreamland after ‘amazing two weeks’, next goal getting to No 1

French Open
Ashleigh Barty French Open

It will take a while for Ashleigh Barty’s glorious French Open title win to sink in, but she admits “chipping away” at the world No 1 ranking is next on her list.

The past few months have been a bit of a whirlwind for Barty as she first surprised a lot of people by winning the Miami Open, but bigger and better things were to come at Roland Garros.

On Saturday she brushed aside Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-3 to win her maiden Grand Slam trophy and become the first Australian to win in Paris since Margaret Court in 1973.

“This is just incredible,” she said. “I never dreamt that I’d be sitting here with this trophy here at the French Open. I mean, obviously we have dreams and goals as children, but this is incredible.”

Despite her success at Miami, Barty certainly headed to Roland Garros as a bit of outsider as she didn’t really set the world alight during the warm-up tournaments, but it all came together over the two weeks.

“For the last fortnight, the stars have aligned for me,” she said. “I have been able to play really good tennis when I’ve needed it… I think any time I can play my brand of tennis, I know that I can match it against the best in the world.”

She added: “I’m learning more and more every single time that I play, learning how to use my variety and use it as best I can. It’s just been an amazing two weeks.”

The result sees her rise to a career-best No 2 in the world rankings and she definitely has her sights on Naomi Osaka, who has been in top spot since she won the Australian Open at the start of the year.

“Obviously, that’s the next point, the next goal, the next situation I can see myself in,” the 23-year-old said.

“Being number two in the world is incredible and something I never dreamt of as a child and we’ll keep chipping away and try our best to get to number one.”

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