Ashleigh Barty wrote history in tennis following her yearend WT Finals appearance for the first time in her career with a win over Defending champion Elina Svitolina. She won the title of WTA Finals by defeating Svitolina by 6-4 and 6-3.
The title now adds to her season’s earlier first Grand Slam win at the French Open. With that win, she has also risen to be the world rank no. 1 and enjoyed this status for 15 weeks and now also has become the first-ever female Australian tennis player to hold the year-end rank of no. 1.
Barty said of her achievements this year, “it feels as if this is a year that has not even stopped yet. This year has been the one for me with incredible ups and downs. I think there were more ups than the downs. Now to cap it all off with a very special win in Shenzhen is really amazing and cool. To be able to come through such a week, you need to beat the best of the best.”
Svitolina who lost the title of WTA Finals to Barty said, “I think she played a great match today. She was on it 100% and it was very tough against her. I only missed a little of my chances and that was what made all the difference. Still, she is the world no. 1 for a reason.”
The season for Barty does not end with the WTA Finals win as she will now fly to Perth where she will lead the FedEx Cup, Australian team. The Australian team will play against the French team next weekend.
Barty said of her upcoming time in Fed Cup, “I only need to have one more amazing week to cap it off and that would make it my perfect year. This Fed Cup is a time that I had been looking forward to for a long time. Playing for myself and my country, in front of my family and friends, to represent Australia while wearing the green and gold. There is nothing much better than that.”
As the winner of the WTA Finals, Ashleigh Barty takes with her home the record prize win of 4.42 million dollars. This paycheck marks her to be the richest prize winner in the history of the sport.
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