Ash Barty was all class following her shock defeat to Shelby Rogers at the 2021 US Open, praising her “incredible” American opponent as the Aussie shot down concern about her ability to serve out big matches.
Barty crumbled in front of a deafening crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York to be beaten 6-2, 1-6, 7-6, squandering several chances to serve out the match.
The Queenslander was honest in her post-match press conference reflecting on her “disappointing” loss.
“Yeah, tough one. It’s never nice when you have a couple opportunities to serve out a match and can’t get it done,” she said.
“Look, a 6 in the third is brutal, it’s a tough one to swallow. But it is what it is tonight. I found a way back into my match. I found a way to really turn it in my favour and just wasn’t able to just quite finish off. It’s disappointing but we’ll move on.”
Barty denied she was nervous, but admitted to “erratic” play in the night session where slow conditions on court appeared to bother her.
“It’s pretty slow and dead out there on Ashe at night. It was my first experience kind of playing at night there. It does make a pretty dramatic difference,” Barty said.
“I played a pretty awful first set in the sense where I was erratic. I couldn’t quite find the rhythm of how I wanted to play.”
“I mean, towards the end, even the 5-2 service game, I played a pretty poor service game. Shelby had a lot of looks at second serves,” Barty added.
“In the end I think that game put some oxygen into her lungs. At the 5-4 game, we played some long points. I mean, I didn’t play too many bad points. Shelby came up with some really good stuff when it mattered most. A forehand lob, 30-All, you tip your hat and say, ‘Too good’.
“In the end I just didn’t quite have enough in the tank. I’ve left everything out on the court this year. It was no different tonight. I just didn’t quite have enough to get over the line, which is disappointing but we move on. I sleep well tonight knowing I gave everything I could; it just wasn’t quite enough.”
The raucous crowd cheering loudly for Rogers didn’t put Barty off her game, instead she said she felt “comfortable” even as momentum swung towards the American.
“I felt comfortable on the court. It was an awesome experience to play on Ashe at night. It’s an incredible atmosphere. Playing against Shelby and sharing that with her was really cool,” she said.
“I think that tension is natural.”
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Barty spoke generously about her respect for Rogers, and was happy for her unexpected victory.
“There are certain people on the tour that I think no matter the result you know you’re always going to get a genuine handshake, a smile, you’re going to get that genuine respect. For me Shelby has always been one of those people,” Barty said.
“She’s one that I respect, one of the most that I respect on tour, and she’s an incredible person. Tonight she showed a lot of fight.
“I could see she was enjoying herself. I think that’s the most important thing for both of us, we had a lot of fun out there. I know regardless of the result, it never changes our relationship, and that’s really special when you’ve got someone who is just a class act off and on the court.
“It sucks in tennis that there’s a winner and loser every single day, but sometimes you don’t mind losing to certain people. I think Shelby in a sense of her personality and her character, she’s certainly one of those for me.”
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Barty said after a “rollercoaster” six months on tour filled with some “tough moments”. she was not yet sure what her schedule looks like going forward. She was only able to confirm she will play Indian Wells next month.
“We’ll let this settle and kind of rest a little bit now and take stock a bit,” she said.
“But for us, like we would usually do after every bigger tournament, every kind of phase of the year, I feel like the slams you’re kind of building up to it and afterwards there’s a reset. For us, it’s no different.
“We reset now. We go back, go back to the drawing board, work out what we want to do for the rest of the season.”