After a COVID-19-induced hiatus last year, Wimbledon has a women’s champion. World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty won the title, beating Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 on Saturday.
This is the Australian’s first Wimbledon title, having won the 2019 French Open. She was the first Australian woman to reach a Wimbledon final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.
Barty controlled the match until the second set where Pliskova broke the tie running down a Barty shot that flicked the net lobbed in the air and was subsequently smashed back to the court.
Then, in the final set, Barty hit her seventh ace of the match, for championship point, Pliskova netted it over and it was over.
Barty’s win pushed her advantage over Pliskova in their head-to-heads to 6-2. Pliskova, the tournament’s No. 8 seed, has never won a major title.
Barty is the first Australian woman to win the singles trophy at the All England Club since Evonne Goolagong in 1980. Barty says she has been inspired by Goolagong and wore an outfit at Wimbledon that was a tribute to the dress Goolagong played in when she won the tournament for the first time in 1971.
Follow Christian Ortega on Twitter @unofficialchris.
Contributing: Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ashleigh Barty wins Wimbledon with defeat of Karolina Pliskova