Barty ends Australia's 46-year wait for French Open title
Paris, Jun 8: Ashleigh Barty ended Australia's 46-year wait for a French Open singles title on Saturday by thrashing nervous Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova in a one-sided women's final.
Eighth seed Barty got off to a strong start and never looked back, winning 6-1, 6-3 after only 70 minutes to claim her maiden Grand Slam title.
The 23-year-old will rise to second in the world behind only Naomi Osaka when the latest rankings are released next week, after becoming the first Australian winner at Roland Garros since Margaret Court won the last of her five trophies in 1973.
She will be best-ranked Australian woman since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976.
"It's unbelievable, I'm a little bit speechless. I played the perfect match today. I'm so proud of myself and my team, it's been a incredible two weeks," said Barty.
"It's a special place for Australians here. Sam (Stosur) has done well here before and come so close. It's been a magical two weeks."
Barty, who famously took a break from tennis to play professional cricket in 2015, struck 27 winners past an opponent riddled with nerves.
The 19-year-old Vondrousova saw her bid to become the first teenage Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova won the 2006 US Open come to a tame end, as the world number 38 made 22 unforced errors, against a mere 10 winners.
"Congratulations to you and your team, you gave me a lesson," Vondrousova said to Barty at the trophy presentation.
"Even though I didn't get the win today, I'm really happy with everything."
- Nervous wait -
Almost 90 minutes after the match was due to start, the players made their way onto Court Philippe Chatrier, after Dominic Thiem's thrilling five-set win over Novak Djokovic in the men's semi-finals forced Barty and Vondrousova to endure a nervous wait.
The scheduling had already been criticised on Friday as a sexism row erupted when the women's semis were moved away from the showpiece Chatrier court.
In fact, this was the first match on the premier Roland Garros arena in Vondrousova's career, although she did have a brief practice session on Saturday morning.
The tension got the better of the Czech early on, as she double faulted to gift Barty two break points, before firing long to put her opponent 2-0 ahead.
Barty, who also reached the Australian Open quarter-finals earlier this year, consolidated the break with a confident love hold, leaving Vondrousova firmly on the back foot after only seven minutes of play.
Another break followed as Vondrousova threatened to fall apart, but she settled down and got herself on the scoreboard.
Barty quickly got back on track, and wrapped up the first set after only 29 minutes with a crunching forehand winner.
Vondrousova had it all to do in the second set having managed just two winners in the opener, but she contrived to drop serve again at the first time of asking.
She finally held serve for the first time in the match, though, saving two break points in the third game.
Vondrousova had reached the final without dropping a set and had the best record on tour since the Australian Open, but she left it too late to get her game in order on this occasion.
And Barty broke once more, hammering away a simple smash on her first match point to seal her moment in the spotlight, with Vondrousova left sitting on the bench in tears.
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Rain lashes parts of Bengal as severe cyclone 'Dana' moves closer to coast
Kolkata (PTI): Several districts of West Bengal received moderate to heavy rain on Thursday morning, as severe cyclonic storm 'Dana' inched closer to the state’s coast and that of neighbouring Odisha, the IMD said.
The cyclonic storm is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra Port in Odisha early Friday with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (kmph), it said.
The weather system lay 280 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha) and 370 km south-southeast of Sagar Island (West Bengal) at 2.30 am, the IMD said in a bulletin.
The cyclonic storm is set to bring heavy rainfall in several south Bengal districts, including Kolkata.
Advising fishermen not to venture into the sea, the Met Department said gale wind with speeds reaching 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph is prevailing over northwest Bay of Bengal.
It warned that the wind speed over the area is likely to increase gradually to
100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph till Friday morning, and decrease thereafter.
The coastal districts of Bengal are experiencing moderate to heavy rain and gusty winds since the early hours of Thursday, while Kolkata woke up to an overcast sky and intermittent showers.
The bulletin warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy downpour in isolated places in the south Bengal districts of North and South 24 Parganas, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly districts on Thursday and Friday.
Public transportation to and from Kolkata's suburbs may get affected from the evening, as Eastern and South Eastern railways cancelled a large number of trains on Thursday and Friday, in view of the cyclone.
More than 170 express and passenger trains running through South Eastern Railway (SER) jurisdiction have been cancelled, an official said.
The trains cancelled were scheduled to depart from their originating stations between October 23 and October 27, he said.
The Kolkata-headquartered SER zone is spread across West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.
Besides, the Eastern Railway (ER) will not operate any EMU local train from Sealdah station on its south and Hasnabad sections from 8 pm on Thursday till 10 am on Friday, the official said.
The ER also cancelled 68 suburban trains on the Howrah division on Friday morning, he said.
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said it is on high alert and has mobilised vessels and aircraft to respond swiftly to any contingency over the Bay of Bengal.
Meanwhile, the NDRF said it has deployed several teams across south Bengal to tackle any emergency situation.
Ferry services in the Sunderbans area spread over North and South 24 Parganas districts and also across river Hooghly in Kolkata and adjoining areas will remain cancelled in view of the impending inclement weather, officials said.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also opened a control room at its headquarters here, and cancelled the leaves of all essential staff.
