Australian Open wrap: Tactical changes push Barty to title; Pegula sets aside doubts

This week, WTA Insider looks back at the 2022 Australian Open, which was chock-full of milestone moments and compelling storylines.

Performance of the Tournament: Ashleigh Barty

Zero sets lost. Broken three times across seven matches. Dropped more than four games in a set just once. A 44-year drought ended. You couldn't have asked for more from the World No.1, as she methodically marched her way to her third major title at the Australian Open. It was a statement run for the Aussie, who once again cemented her spot atop the game and put her versatile, tactical game on full display for the world to see.

Read: How Barty evolved into the most unbeatable player on tour

As Barty said on the WTA Insider Podcast, this was the best Slam she's played. Every aspect of her game was flowing. And for all the doubters who thought the moment would upend her along the way, Barty never wobbled. Even in the final, as Danielle Collins wrenched control of the second set to build a 5-1 lead, Barty never let her mind get ahead of her. There were no thoughts of what could be lost, the 'what ifs' should the match go to a one-set shootout for the title.

Clear of mind and purpose, Barty simply made the tactical adjustments she needed to take back the baseline. She hit the ball bigger. She dusted off the two-handed backhand in favor of the "chisel." She looked for forehands that, as she admitted, weren't always there, and she executed them. And when Collins continued to pressure her on serve, Barty unleashed a flurry of unreturnables that proved just how clutch she could be. 

Achieving her biggest dream at Wimbledon and coming through at her home Slam, Barty joins Serena Williams as the only active women to own Slams on all three surfaces. It's hard not to think the World No.1 is now playing with house money. She's now one Slam behind Naomi Osaka. Barty will have a look at building on her Slam haul at each major she contests. And as she continues to extend her weeks at No.1, she will continue to move up the charts to overtake some of the game's great champions. 

Social Buzz: Celebrities, players celebrate Barty's Australian Open title

Surprise of the Tournament: Alizé Cornet

In a tournament of feel-good results, the Frenchwoman wrote a perfect script for her long-awaited career milestone. Playing in her 63rd Slam main draw, Cornet defeated two former No.1s in No.3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza and No.14 seed Simona Halep to finally make her first major quarterfinal. Her grueling, emotional 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over Halep left no dry eye in the house.

Honor Roll

Danielle Collins: After battling her way back into her second Australian Open semifinal, the American delivered, unleashing her dangerous ground game, trademark competitiveness and laser-like focus to dominate No.7 seed Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and push Barty harder than anyone had at Melbourne Park. 

It took some gutsy tactical changes from Barty to reel Collins back in from 5-1 up in the second set to seal the straight-sets win in the final, but Collins proved she belonged shoulder to shoulder with the tour's Top 10 and built a loyal following over the fortnight.

Read: What's next for Danielle Collins

Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova: The top team won their fourth major title and first on hard courts, defeating the Cinderella team of Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Not unlike the singles champion Barty, the Czechs leave Melbourne just one Slam away from completing the career Grand Slam. They'll make their charge at the US Open. 

Madison Keys: After starting the season barely inside the Top 90, Keys is back in the Top 30 after spending her January tallying the same number of wins as she had in all of 2021 - 11. 

En route to her first major semifinal since making the 2017 US Open final, Keys notched two wins versus Top 10 players, defeating Paula Badosa and Barbora Krejcikova. For context, the last time Keys owned multiple Top 10 wins in a season was in 2018 and the last time she defeated two Top 10 players in a tournament was back in 2016 in Rome. 

Jessica Pegula: It's one thing to have a breakout season. It's another to back it up. Pegula went a long way toward setting aside any doubts that she could replicate her 2021 season after backing up her quarterfinal run from last year. Her marquee win came against No.5 seed Maria Sakkari, defeating the Greek star in straight sets in the Round of 16. Her down-to-earth perspective on her career and life on tour sets her up well for another strong season. 

Iga Swiatek: There's little that the Polish star can do that remains under the radar, but the 20-year-old has solidified herself as the most consistent Slam performer at the moment. She extended her streak of Slam second weeks to six, the longest active WTA streak. 

Swiatek's back-to-back comeback wins, against Sorana Cirstea and Kaia Kanepi, were significant growth moments in her development. After making her first major quarterfinal and semifinal off the clay, Swiatek is back up to her career-high ranking at No.4. She also had the best match point of the tournament:

Amanda Anisimova: The WTA landscape is more interesting when Anisimova is blasting backhand winners from all parts of the court. The 20-year-old is back up to No.41 after winning her first title since 2019 at the Melbourne Summer Set 2 and then proceeded to take down two top seeds en route to the Round of 16. She took a straight-sets win against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and triumphed in a match-point saving effort to edge defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third round. 

Clara Tauson: Twelve months ago, the Danish teenager was ranked No.144. She proceeded to put together a solid 2021 campaign, winning her first two WTA titles in Lyon and Luxembourg, but had yet to earn a headline-grabbing win. That changed in Melbourne, where she dismantled No.6 seed Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-4 in the second round and nearly got the better of Collins in the third round, narrowly losing 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Tauson is up to a career-high No.34 and right in the mix with the tour's teenage set, which includes Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez.

Kaia Kanepi: At 36 years old and ranked No.115, the Estonian completed her set of Slam quarterfinal appearances after defeating No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in a nail-biter, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 (10-7), in the Round of 16. That was the second seed she took down in Melbourne; she opened her tournament with a straight-sets win over No.16 seed Angelique Kerber. It's been a broken record for a decade and a half, but no one ever wants to see Kaia Kanepi in their draw at a Slam. Her uncanny ability struck again. 

Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia: The unseeded duo were 9-0 on the season before falling to top seeds Krejcikova/Siniakova in the Australian Open final. They won their first team title in Sydney right before the Aussie Open. The surprise pairing proved incredibly successful, knocking off No.2 seeds Aoyama/Shibahara in the semifinals before having the No.1 team on the ropes. 

Aryna Sabalenka: Despite her serving woes - the World No.2 struck 56 double faults in four matches - Sabalenka still came within a handful of points from making her first Australian Open quarterfinal. Her humor and openness about her struggles, which she chalks up to a mental block, served her well to get her into her third consecutive second week at a major. 

Naomi Osaka: The defending champion was a point away twice to booking a blockbuster fourth-round showdown against Barty, but it took a sublime performance from Anisimova to upend her in the third round. Osaka's ranking will plummet outside the Top 80 after her Australian Open points dropped off, but the four-time major champion had the perfect perspective:

"I'm not quite worried about my ranking," Osaka said. "I think that it will go up to where it needs to go up to if I keep playing like this throughout the year. And honestly, like, if I'm not [seeded] at Slams, I think the other people that I'm playing against would be more worried about it than I am. You know what I mean? So for me I'm just going to keep my head down and keep working hard. I think I'll get to where I need to get to."

Notable Numbers

3: Breaks conceded by Ashleigh Barty en route to the Australian Open title, the fewest breaks conceded in a major title run since 2016.

30: Games dropped by Ashleigh Barty in Melbourne. She is the first woman to lose 30 or fewer games en route to the Australian Open title since Mary Pierce in 1995.

7: American women to reach the Australian Open singles final since 2000: Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Jennifer Brady, and Danielle Collins. This is five more than any other country (Russia: Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina; Belgium: Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin). 

Rankings Watch: Big surges and surprising drops after the first Slam of the season

115: Kaia Kanepi's ranking at the Australian Open, where she advanced to the quarterfinals. Kanepi is the fifth woman ranked outside the Top 100 to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in the 2000s. Martina Hingis (2006), Jelena Dokic (2009), Justine Henin (2010) and Zhang Shuai (2016) are the others. 

3: Comebacks from a set down by Aryna Sabalenka to advance to the fourth round at the Australian Open. She is the third player in the 2000s to notch three consecutive comebacks to advance to the Round of 16 at Melbourne Park (Casey Dellacqua, 2008; Zheng Jie, 2010). 

Photo of the Fortnight

Photo Gallery: The best photos from the 2022 Australian Open

Best Quote

"That's who I am. I mean, I can't hide my true nature. If I'm a drama queen for the people, then I am." - Alizé Cornet