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Serena Williams behind Ashleigh Barty's success? Barty had left tennis in 2014 to pursue a career in cricket, but after 15 months shecame back to the tennis court. Serena Williams appears to have played a part in this return of the Australian tennis player, who then began a relentless ascent to No.
1 in the WTA ranking, winning three Slam titles. In fact, as said by Jim Joyce, first Barty's coach at The Curier: "Ash was in a restaurant I think and Serena sent her a message saying: You're too good a player to retire, you have to come back!" Serena and Ashleigh first met at the Australian Open in 2014 with the American winning 6-2 6-1, Barty clearly left an impression on the American, then later at Roland Garros, where Serena prevailed 3- 6 6-3 6-4.
At the 2022 Australian Open Barty defeated American Danielle Collins in the final 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Serena's career
Serena Williams has won 73 WTA singles titles: 23 of these are Grand Slam events (absolute record in the Open Era, men included), making her the second player ever to have won more Majors in this specialty behind only Margaret Smith Court, with 24 .
She completed the virtual Grand Slam, which consists in winning four consecutive Slams not in the same calendar year, twice (in the two years 2002-2003 and 2014-2015). She has also won five year-end Master Cups and 19 Premier category tournaments (6 Premier Mandatory, 6 Premier 5 and 7 Premier), as well as 21 Tier I and Tier II titles and a gold medal from the London Olympics in 2012 against Maria Sharapova.
Not only in singles Serena Williams can boast numerous victories, but also in women's doubles and mixed doubles, where there are 16 other Grand Slam tournaments: 14 won with her older sister Venus and two in mixed doubles, both obtained with Maks Mirny in 1998.
To these successes must be added three other gold medals at the Olympics, all won together with Venus, a Federation Cup and two Hopman Cups. In 2021, Serena missed the US Open due to a hamstring injury which she got at Wimbledon.