Ashleigh Barty: This is unreal

A ruthless Ashleigh Barty swept into her first Australian Open final on Thursday with the top seed outgunning a resurgent Madison Keys in a clinical straightsets demolitionThe World No1 overwhelmed the 51st ranked American 61 63 in just 62 minutes to set up showdown against American 27th seed Danielle CollinsCollins overpowered the Polish seventh seed and former French Open champion Iga Swiatek 64 61 on Rod Laver Arena to reach her first Grand Slam deciderDanielle Collins PicAFPBarty is the first Australian woman into the decider of her home Grand Slam since Wendy Turnbull in 1980 and is aiming to become the first winner since Chris OrsquoNeil two years earlierShe is also looking to add to her 2020 French Open and 2021 Wimbledon 2021 titles with the top seed on an ominous 10match win streak to start the year ldquoItrsquos unreal Honestly itrsquos just incredible Irsquom just happy I get to play my best tennis hererdquo said Barty who is assured of retaining her WorldNo1 ranking even if she loses the finalldquoThe ball was a little slower tonight heavier off the strings I just tried to run and adapt make as many balls as I could and keep Maddie under the pump on her serve because she has the ability to really take it away from you quicklyrdquolsquoAmazing human beingrsquoBarty paid tribute to Keys a former Top10 player who is on the rise again after difficult couple of years ldquoItrsquos just so nice to see her back where she belongsrdquo said Barty ldquoShersquos an amazing human beingrdquoBarty has been unassailable in Melbourne dropping her serve just once through six matches and is yet to drop a set And the top seed who played cricket with her team on Wednesday to relax was once more in full command of her game with an attacking forehand and lethal backhand sliceSwiatek overwhelmedMeanwhile Swiatek said she came up against the fastest balls she has ever faced after being blown off court by the raw power of Collins to miss out on an Australian Open final on Thursday The Polish seventh seed was overwhelmed by the American 64 61 in the Last 4 and said it was tough to know how to deal with her relentless shotmakingldquoI was prepared for her playing an aggressive game but I think that was the fastest ball I have ever played against in a matchrdquo Swiatek said ldquoFor sure in practices I have hit maybe the same speed but in matches itrsquos different because players they donrsquot want to you know take that much risk But it seemed for her that it wasnrsquot even risky because she was playing it with control So I am impressed and huge respect to her because shersquos playing a great gamerdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever