Ashleigh Barty became only the third Australian woman to win the women’s singles championship at the French Open on Saturday. Barty follows Margaret Court, who won in 1962, 1964, 1969, 1970 and 1973, and Lesley Turner, who won in 1963 and 1965. It should be noted that before 1968 the French Open was known as the French Championships.
In Saturday’s final at Roland Garros, Barty defeated Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic quite handily 6-1, 6-3. It was the biggest blowout in the French Open women’s singles final since Justine Henin of Belgium beat Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-1, 6-2 in the 2007 French Open final.
The match lasted only 70 minutes long as Barty completely dictated play. The most telling statistic was winners as Vondrousova only had 10 the entire match, while Barty had 27. Barty also broke Vondrousova five separate occasions.
The last Australian woman to win a singles title at a major championship was Samantha Stosur at the 2011 U.S. Open. That year Stosur beat Serena Williams of the United States in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.
The 2011 U.S. Open women’s final, was similar to the 2018 U.S. Open women’s final because it was remembered for its controversy between Williams and a chair umpire. In 2011, Williams hollered “Come On!” before Stosur had an opportunity to return the tennis ball during a rally. The penalty assessed to Williams by umpire Eva Asderaki of Greece was a loss of point, which made the American tennis star very furious.
Meanwhile, the second men’s semi-final was completed on Saturday. The match between the first ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia and fourth ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria was initially delayed by rain with the two players winning a set apiece and Thiem leading Djokovic 3-1 in the third set on Friday. On Saturday, Thiem continued to play effective tennis and beat the world number one 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5.
With the loss, Djokovic misses out on an opportunity to be the title holder of all four majors at once. He beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 in the 2018 Wimbledon Final. Djokovic then beat Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in the U.S. Open men’s final and then Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the 2019 Australian Open men’s final.
Thiem’s opponent in the 2019 French Open men’s singles final will be the same as the 2018 men’s singles final–Nadal. Last year, Nadal easily beat Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Head to head Nadal leads Thiem 8-4. However Thiem won the last match 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-final of Barcelona played on clay.
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