Barty defeats Pliskova to win first Wimbledon title

She has done it! World No. 1 Ash Barty defeated Karolina Pliskova to win her first career Wimbledon women’s singles title, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. It is her second major victory, but this one is the most special since it happened on her favorite surface. The title comes on the golden anniversary of Australian Evonne Goolagang, Barty’s tennis idol, winning her first Wimbledon title. Goolagang was the last Australian woman to win a Wimbledon title (1980).

Barty started off very quickly, winning the first 14 points. She eventually came back to earth for the rest of the match and Pliskova started to give herself opportunities to win her first career major title.

Barty led in the first set 4-0 but Pliskova was able to recover and break at love to give herself some momentum. After an exchange of breaks, and a hold of serve from Pliskova, Barty was able to close out the first set, 6-3.

It appeared Barty would cruise to a straight-set victory after she broke and consolidated to make the second set 3-1. Pliskova fired off three games in a row and put the pressure on Barty’s serve for the rest of the set. Barty broke again at the tail end of set to make it 6-5, surely signifying the match was nearing its end.

But, Barty’s serve fell off for the remainder of the second set and she gave up another break to Pliskova. A slow start in the tiebreaker spelled doomed for Barty and a resurgence for Pliskova, who won the tiebreak 7-4 to even up the match.

At that point, the match had become a toss-up but a resilient Barty continued a trend of getting off to a hot start at the beginning of sets. Barty broke Pliskova and held serve to go up 3-0 in the decider. She learned from her mistakes and only gave Pliskova one break point chance for the rest of the match, which was the only break she did not end up converting in the entire match. Any sign of nerves from Barty was not being shown in those final service games.

On match point, Pliskova hit a backhand error into the net and Barty, who showed signs of disbelief towards her camp watching, finally fulfilled her childhood dreams of becoming a Wimbledon champion.

Ash Barty’s name will forever be part of history and she is more than capable of continuing to build her legacy in the near future.