Ashleigh Barty leads the French Open according to his conditions and his chronology

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PARIS – She just turned 23 and yet we have the impression of knowing Ashleigh Barty forever.

His padded smile and professional court behavior have been familiar faces for years. She was 15-year-old Wimbledon Junior Champion and 16-time Grand Slam Finalist. Any athlete who succeeds so young earns predictable labels – prodigy, freak – and Barty, one of the most appreciated and admired tennis players, seemed to wear them so well that there was no reason to believe that she needed a break until she took one.

The sport is full of children parading in our fields of vision, hitting the wall and never bounce. But Barty has returned to his own schedule, first mainly in doubles, then gradually in singles, looking rejuvenated, if we can apply the term to a girl of 21 years. She spent a brief stay as a professional cricketer – a game in which she excelled after getting back to scratch and appreciated for her team appearance.

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When she returned to tennis, she first thought that her best chance of winning a major title would be in the doubles, not in the head-to-head competition, but she was thirsty for "ebb and flow." flow, the emotions you get from winning and losing matches, "she said. "They are so unique and you can only have them when you play and you put yourself on the sidelines and you become vulnerable and you try to do things that nobody thinks about."

Barty is still young, though inevitably, other greener seedlings have sprung up around her during the women's tour. Her unexpected opponent at Roland-Garros on Saturday was left-winger Marketa Vondrousova, a 19-year-old WTA No. 38, who eliminated four seeds. Their combined age was the lowest since a major league match since Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina met in the 2008 French Open Championship.

Ashleigh Barty almost gave up tennis and briefly played cricket in Australia in 2015. Michael Dodge / Cricket Australia / Getty Images

Barty, eighth seed, performs an impressive variety of things in his crisp and creative game. All she had to do was pull all the cylinders at once, and what she had done, schooling Vondrousova to a 70-minute victory, 6-1, 6-3 as simple as the men's semifinal won by Dominic Thiem was drawn and theatrical.

Joy and disbelief crossed Barty's expressive face after she rushed to fetch a defensive lob at Vondrousova near the pole and hit him at home. She became the first Australian girl in 46 years to win the Suzanne Lenglen Cup, making two social media prophesies this week from legendary fellow countryman Rod Laver, who attended the show.

One of Barty's only missteps occurred just prior to playing his national anthem at the trophy ceremony, when he had to tell him where to stand. Only at the end of the platform, she finally gave in to the emotion and struggled to hold back her tears. This did not matter. His lyrical style sings by himself.

The suspended end Saturday of Thiem's ​​five-set duel against Novak Djokovic was interrupted for more than an hour by the rain, pushing the women's championship off for 90 minutes. Barty, whose matches of the second week of the French Open were disrupted by various climatic and agenda factors, was insensitive.

Barty slashed four Americans before the final, including two other teenage girls, Sofia Kenin, who upset Serena Williams, and Amanda Anisimova, who knocked out defending champion Simona Halep. Madison Keys, a semifinalist here last year, was the only woman to take a set.

Working as if she had a dinner reservation, Barty scored 4-0 in just 10 minutes before Vondrousova, still valiantly beating his heavy strokes, broke it to find himself on the board. Barty straightened his cap and pulled back. And that's how things went, in most cases, since Barty was winning on a clay surface, where his ambition at the beginning of the season was not to "reverse".

"I think that overall, I'm getting better at managing different opportunities," she said earlier this week. "It's about a Slam, a big tournament, the Fed Cup, all these different occasions in which I found myself, I've got it." We feel we have been able to handle it really well and, in a way, bring it back to the way I want to play and simply simplify it.

It makes the sound easy. Still, Barty's inner strength and exterior authenticity have been visible in far more difficult situations than any tennis match, only to speak frankly of his own arm wrestling with burnout; publicly stand up for his former double partner, Casey Dellacqua, when Dellacqua was the subject of homophobic remarks by former champion Margaret Court; or embrace and celebrate one's native heritage.

His first model, Evonne Goolagong, seven-time Grand Slam champion, is the name that Barty is sure to search among the etchings on the silver trophy.

"Evonne has sent me an SMS a few days ago and said it was his first Grand Slam," Barty said. "I'm going to call her a little bit later, it's amazing that she's created that path for aboriginal tennis in Australia and no – you know, I think now it's becoming more national." There's more opportunities for children to start playing tennis, men and women.

"Hopefully we can continue to create these opportunities and let the kids know that it's an option for a career and that they can take advantage of it." And even if that's not the case, Is a sport that they can play for life. "

In the field, Barty assured Vondrousova that she would reach this stage again. Do not be afraid to grow at your own pace, and Barty has shown that it can be done without necessarily taking the shortest path between two points.

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