Ashleigh Barty downs Irina Khromacheva; clinches Girls’ Singles title – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Seeded at number 12 in the tournament, Ashleigh Barty of Australia took the glory in the final of the Girls’ singles event at Wimbledon Championships by upsetting the third seed, Irina Khromacheva of Russia on Saturday.
The 15-year-old Australian beat all the odds to conquer the Grand Slam title in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6(3), taking 98 minutes of play on the Court number one at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London,
England. It was a hard-fought victory for Barty, who took down the hot favourite Khromacheva to win her first Wimbledon title.
The Aussie exhibited her magnificent tennis skills on the grass-court to outplay the third seeded Russian in an assertive manner. The contest remained evenly poised all the way, with a number of serve breaks been struck by both
contestants and exchanges of elegant winners throughout the game. Barty took the opening set after stinging a critical break point in the last moments to get one up in the contest early. A stiff battle was seen in the second set, with both girls fighting extremely
hard to clinch glory but the Aussie bagged victory in the tie breaker round to become the Grand Slam champion.
Despite of a below par serve precision of just 51 per cent, Barty reeled off 33 out of 48 first serve points in the matchup, while belting seven aces and conceding eight double faults. Her voyage to glory was assisted by 28 unforced
errors from Khromacheva, which include three double faults as well.
Both competitors had plenty of break opportunities, with Khromacheva converting four out of 11 chances and Barty cashing in five out of her 13 break points en route to victory. The Russian hung in the contest till the very last
minute but tend to lose the crucial points in the game, something very well exploited by Barty throughout the competition.
The opener took off with aggression from both sides and a series of serve breaks was witnessed. The contestants exchanged two serve breaks each to take the scores to 5-5 and it looked very likely that a tie breaker round was on
its way. However, a crucial break point from Barty left her serving for the set at 6-5 and she eventually bagged the opening set at 7-5 to take a substantial position in the matchup.
The following set again witnessed four serve breaks from both opponents, this time dragging the set into a tie breaker round. Khromacheva failed to hold her nerve in the pressure situation and finally crumbled at 6-7(3), to let
Barty clinch the Girls’ singles title at Wimbledon Championships.
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