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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) – Ashleigh Barty retired from tennis about five years ago, claiming she was exhausted at age 17.
She came back three years ago.
And now, at 22, she's better than ever.
The 12th seed, Barty, reached his first final in the Miami Open. She suffered three rain delays Thursday to knock out Anett Kontaveit (21st), 6-3, 6-3, in the first women's semifinal.
Then, in the biggest final of her career in singles: Simona Halep, second seed, or Karolina Pliskova, fifth seed, who will play Thursday night.
"Obviously, I've done the right things throughout the week to be able to put myself in a position to play for a title," Barty said. "You have to go over there and kiss her."
It's also his approach to a very long and very wet day at Hard Rock Stadium.
Barty, who will reach the 9th place in the world rankings, his best career result, was to go to court for the semi-final against Kontaveit at 1 pm They only started playing at 2:08, and the delays were just beginning.
They played in three games – six minutes of tennis – before the first game delay ended things for more than two hours. They played another game before the new rain, which resulted in another two-hour delay.
At 19:32, finally, it's over. Kontaveit pushed back one point of the match with a shot straight, but was ousted by an ace at the next point. Barty lost 3-1 in the second but has won the last five games.
"Very long day," said Barty, who spent time in the locker room drinking coffee and watching golf. "But for me, it's an opportunity to go out and play another game, we can not control the weather."
Barty has already beaten Halep and Pliskova in her career – but given the seeds and the respective rankings, she will not be Saturday's favorite.
And she's fine with that.
"I can go and play with freedom and try to play my best tennis," Barty said.
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