World No. 1 Australian Ashleigh Barty blew away defending champion and world No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3 in their final clash to lift the Billie Jean King trophy at the 2019 Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen here on Sunday.
The straight-sets victory is Barty’s first win against Svitolina in their five meetings since the Fed Cup in 2017, and it was the Australian who had been far more successful this year. Barty was 3-2 in finals appearances this season, having lifted her maiden Grand Slam trophy at Roland Garros. With the win, Barty now equals the record of Karolina Pliskova as the season leader in titles.
Svitolina, in contrast, entered the final without a win over a top five player or an appearance in a final this season. That said, Svitolina had been successful in the finals in which she appeared. The loss snapped a 9-match hot streak in finals, and does little to blunt a career win-loss record of 13-3 since 2013.
Barty opened the match with a hold to 15, sticking to steady crosscourt forehands to end points quickly.
Svitolina was also strong out of the gate, firing off two aces on the way to holding her own opening service.
Barty began to rely on her backhand slice during her second service, and it worked reasonably well at first. An unforced error off this side gave Svitolina a game point to go 15-all, but the Australian managed to keep it together for a straightforward hold to go 2-1.
Although the two players served out to 3-all without facing any break points, it was Barty who was the shakier of the two. Her backhand slice and forehand were both occasionally going long, but she appeared under no pressure to make huge adjustments as both shots also continued to find winners as she held to go up 4-3 and reclaim the lead for the third time.
A nasty dropshot netted unforced from Svitolina would hand Barty a game point to go 30-all on her next service, but the Australian would send a forehand straight into the net in reply to give away the hold.
With Barty serving at 4-all, Svitolina began to find ways to get winners off Barty’s cross-court forehand, fighting her to deuce and creating the first break point of the match. Barty managed to keep clutch however, and snatched the hold to end a 6.5-minute point and go up 5-4.
Svitolina’s next service saw her face her first true deficit of the set, with Barty storming to 0-30 by relying on the same steady cross-court 1-2 punching off the forehand that had worked well throughout the opener. Barty would create and surrender two breaking set points before a netcord winner brought it to the third, which she converted with a textbook passing forehand down the line.
Barty fired off 16 winners and kept her unforced errors in the single digits on stellar 74 percent first service shooting over the course of the 45-minute opening set.
The Australian got off to a strong start in the second. She held her opening service to 30 and fought Svitolina to deuce on hers, but failed to create a break point as Svitolina kept steady to respond with a hold of her own.
It would be Barty who flinched first in the second set, double-faulting when serving down 15-40 at 1-all to hand a break to Svitolina.
Barty turned up the heat after this early stumble, logging some of her best returning of the match. She held Svitolina to 30 on her next service and converted a breakpoint off a stellar dropshot from the service line.
Svitolina suffered a meltdown on her service when down at 2-3 that left her visibly rattled on court. A series of forehand unforced capped off by a double fault handed Barty a break on a silver platter.
Svitolina would raise her level just as Barty began to slip on her service at 4-2. Despite Barty pushing her around the court with ease early in the point and getting a great overhead smash winner, the Australian would double-fault at 30-all and then send a backhand shot wide to hand a break back to Svitolina.
The two fought a battle of attrition on Svitolina’s service at 3-4, with Svitolina staving off two break points but proving unable to save a third as Barty shot an unreturnable backhand slice down the line to snatch a chance to serve for the match.
If anything is true about Barty, it’s that she can play her best tennis when it counts. That is exactly what she did when serving at 5-3, producing a clinical hold to love to close out the match in just under 90 minutes.
Speaking on court after lifting the Billy Jean King Trophy, Barty first thanked her opponent for a tough fight.
“It’s been the most incredible year for me. But first and foremost, congratulations to Elina and your team. You’ve had an exceptional year and you’re one of the toughest competitors on the tour. I know that we will have many more battles in the future,” Barty said of Svitolina.
“Thank you also to the city of Shenzhen. It’s been [the start of a] new era in women’s tennis and it’s been incredible to play here in front of this spectacular crowd,” she continued.
Barty’s 2-1 result in the round-robin means that she will take home a 4.42 million US dollar prize pot, the largest ever awarded to any player in the history of tennis. Svitolina’s undefeated record in the round-robin nets her 2.4 million dollars.
