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Ash Barty plays a team game in singular pursuit of home glory | Emma Kemp

The world No 1 has never operated alone and, as she marches towards the Australian Open final, continues to thrive with her support crewWhen Ash Barty talks in first-person pronouns, she does so in plurals. “We” is generally the most utilised option in her lexicon.“I think if you would have told me a few months ago this is the start to the year we’d have, we’d take it with a massive smile on our face,” the world No 1 said after her fourth-round Australian Open win. “We come out, have fun.” Related: Rafael Nadal into Australian Open quarter-finals with win over Fognini Related: Australian Open 2021: Barty wins, Nadal through, Berrettini withdraws – as it happened Continue reading...

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Ashleigh Barty happy to rest up at home while retaining world No 1 status | Tumaini Carayol

Australian has never let tennis rule her life and is as happy watching AFL at home as she is on court, but she will be backFew sports have underlined their unimportance during this pandemic quite like tennis did in early October. As Roland Garros edged deeper into its first week, the top seed and tournament favourite Simona Halep was soaring. She ground through points, pumped her fist to the skies and demolished Amanda Anisimova to reach the fourth round. At that exact same moment 10,300 miles away in Queensland, Australia, the world No 1 and defending champion Ashleigh Barty was also on television, also pumping her fist. However, enclosed in her playing hand was a cool pint of beer, not...

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