Ash Barty wins maiden WTA Tour title at Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur
Updated
Ash Barty's comeback to tennis took a significant step when she breezed past Japan's Nao Hibino 6-3, 6-2 in a rain-hit Malaysian Open final to win her first WTA singles title in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday and break into the world's top 100 for the first time.
The 20-year-old Barty, who only recently returned to tennis after taking time out to play cricket, served seven aces during the match, which was halted for more than an hour in the first set due to rain.
Barty, who qualified for the main draw, showed her mental tenacity against world number 106 Hibino and kept her momentum rolling into the second set to wrap up the match in an hour and 13 minutes.
"I think it's been a success for us, the start (of 2017), more successful than we thought," Barty said after defeating Hibino.
"It's a tribute to all the work we did in the offseason, and last year, coming back. It hasn't quite been 12 months since I started playing singles again. I'm certainly happy to be back."
Barty backed up her singles triumph by also winning the doubles final alongside fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua, the pair beating Nicole Melichar and Makoto Ninomiya 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 after fighting back from 5-1 down in the tie-break in the opening set.
"It's been a monster week for me," Barty said.
"I don't think I could have physically have played any more matches. I'm very happy to come away with two titles today, but even if we didn't it would have been a fantastic tournament anyway.
"Now it's just an absolute bonus."
Reuters/ABC
Topics: tennis, sport, malaysia, ipswich-4305
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