Pat Rafter delves into “rift” between Ash Barty and US player
Aussie great Pat Rafter has opened up about the tension during Ash Barty’s match against her 2022 Australian Open final opponent, Danielle Collins.
The now retired tennis star smashed the American 6-3 7-6 (7-2) which saw Barty claim her first home slam and the third of her career.
Almost 12 months later, Rafter has opened up about the tension the pair had in which Barty didn’t want to lose to the American star and vice versa.
“I knew with her and Danielle, they had a bit of a … what’s the word? There was no love lost anyway,” Rafter told reporters ahead of the United Cup.
“Danielle’s pretty feisty. And Ash didn’t want to lose to her.”
He said that there was a bit of worry when he saw Barty get “rattled” on court before getting out of her head and smashing the game.
“It was pretty funny, I don’t know how much you can pick up on the on-court subtleties of it but I’m pretty aware of Ash and I understand where her mind’s at and I can see all her little movements and ticks,” Rafter continued.
“I was going, ‘oh no, she’s getting rattled, she’s not good’. But she was able to pull it out which was pretty important.
“I would have hated to see her get to the final and lose because she was the dominant player. I like seeing the best players win.”
After her successful win, the now 26-year-old shocked the tennis world by announcing her retirement from the game.
She recently got married to her longtime partner Garry Kissick and is currently working at Optus.
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