Ashleigh Barty won her first Grand Slam title over the weekend, beating Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-3 to become first Aussie champ at Roland Garros since 1973. (She'll now rise to No. 2 in the WTA ranking.)
That she mouthed "what the f**k" after match point was pretty tacky -- does everyone under 30 only speak in text-message abbreviations and emojis? -- but that she joined Evonne Goolagong on the list of Aboriginal tennis champions helped me get over it! As for Vondrousova, it was exactly what should have happened -- she had a Cinderella run to a major final! -- and is what should have happened two years ago when Simona Halep refused to put Jelena Ostapenko away. In a strange way, it almost feels like Latvian's career was sidetracked by reaching the pinnacle so quickly.
And then in a surprise to no one, Rafael Nadal captured his record 12th title in Paris. Perhaps the only upside to the butt-picking OCD poster boy's win is that while Serena Williams did not catch up to Margaret Court's all-time majors feat, Nadal now surpassed Court's 11 of any one major record. Hers, of course, being the Aussie Open, which wasn't even a full-fledged tournament many of the years she won it, but still. No one can ever say she was "the greatest" at any one major again.
Poor Dominic Thiem joins a long list of players unfortunate enough to have competed during the era of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer, who is now in very serious danger of losing his majors record as the Spaniard is now just two away but five years younger than the Swiss.
Movers ...
(With wire services)
