Paris (AFP)
It does not take Ashleigh Barty to make sure she finishes the year on the World No.1 throne, but the Masters, which starts this Sunday, is not the last effort of the season for the Australian. The Fed Cup final will be waiting a week later.
For her seven competitors, Karolina Pliskova, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova, Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina, the defending champion, the Masters, who moved from Singapore to Shenzhen, China, where he begins a lease ten years is the ultimate date of the year. Not for Barty (23), who will be in charge of leading Australia to its first Fed Cup crown since forty-five years on 9 and 10 November, against France, in Perth, on the west coast of the island -continent, at the end of the season that saw her settle at the highest level.
Meanwhile, the unexpected winner of Roland-Garros, which is the first participation in singles at the Masters (she had qualified in doubles in 2017 and 2018), promises to "fight hard to conclude the WTA season with the title to Shenzhen ".
In any case, the place of N.1 worldwide at the end of the year - a new honor for Australian women's tennis - is reaching out to her, she who is the only player to have rallied the second week in the four Grand Slam tournaments. in 2019, and who has won the most matches on the circuit so far (52).
- All to finish N.1 -
Mathematically, Pliskova and Osaka have a chance to steal in extremis, but it is extremely small. At best, the Masters earns 1500 points, and nothing but every pool match played (not won) makes it possible to pocket 125 points.
But Barty enters the prestigious tournament with more than 1000 points ahead of the left-handed Czech - precisely 1161 - and the Japanese player (1230). Thus, on a purely accounting basis, it is not even necessary for the Australian to win the slightest duel, on the sole condition of playing her three group matches. And if she wins one of her first two, the games will be made too.
Barty was added to the red group alongside Osaka, who won the Australian Open in early 2019, Kvitova and Bencic. The purple group consists of Pliskova, Halep and Andreescu, recent winner of the US Open.
Osaka, who remains on two titles in Osaka and Beijing this fall, opens the ball Sunday (16:30 local) against Kvitova. Then it will be Barty's turn, against Bencic. On Monday, Pliskova will be against Svitolina, and Halep in Andreescu.
The first two in each group will qualify for the final four. Of the eight players entered, only Kvitova in 2011 and Svitolina in 2018 have already registered the Masters on their record.
Also in doubles, there will be a taste of Fed Cup, with the presence of French Kristina Mladenovic and Australian Samantha Stosur. The first is associated with the Hungarian Timea Babos - both are defending title - the second Chinese Zhang Shuai.
© 2019 AFP