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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
JOE KRISHNAN

Ashleigh Barty wins French Open women's title with victory over Marketa Vondrousova

Ashleigh Barty has won the French Open after thrashing Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets in the final.

The 23-year-old, who had never been past the second round in Paris before this year, strolled to a 6-1, 6-3 success on Philippe-Chatrier.

The Australian, seeded eighth in the tournament, needed just an hour to wrap up the match after a flawless performance in her first appearance in a Slam final.

A heavy downpour and the overrun from the men's semi-final match had delayed the start to the final by an hour, but the wait clearly had no effect on Barty's preparations.

The Australian stormed out of the blocks, securing a double break inside the first 15 minutes of play, as Vondrousova struggled to settle in the match.

The teenager had a brief reprieve, finally getting on the board a series of errors from Barty, but the 23-year-old made no mistake after that, wrapping up the first set in under half an hour.

Remarkably, that was the first time that 19-year-old Vondrousova had dropped a set and it provided an unknown as to how she would react.

Sure enough, Barty answered that question by snaring a break in the first game of the second set.

Vondrousova finally showed the same resistance as she had against Johanna Konta, battling against two break points to hold serve for the first time in the match.

But she was powerless to prevent Barty from winning her serve and that early break proved to be decisive, as Barty held off a late revival from the Czech to seal her first ever Grand Slam title.

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