By Jonathan Jurejko.
Ashleigh Barty became the first home player to reach the Australian Open women’s singles final in 42 years as she beat Madison Keys in straight sets on a jubilant Rod Laver Arena.
Wimbledon champion Barty, 25, won 6-1 6-3 against the unseeded American.
Now she is one win away from becoming the first Australian – man or woman – to win the singles since Christine O’Neil won the title in 1978.
Top seed Barty will face Iga Swiatek or Danielle Collins in Saturday’s final.
Polish seventh seed Swiatek, who won the 2020 French Open as a 19-year-old, is aiming to reach her second Grand Slam final.
American 27th seed Collins is bidding for her first major final, less than a year after she had surgery for endometriosis.
Whoever wins later on Thursday looks set to face a tough task stopping Barty.
The world number one reached the semi-finals at Melbourne Park in 2020, with defeats in the quarter-finals coming either side.
This year, Barty has so far looked unstoppable and unburdened by the weight of Australian expectation.
“It’s just unreal – as an Aussie we are spoiled that we are a Grand Slam nation, and now we have a chance to play for a title,” she said.
The 25-year-old Queenslander has been in supreme form in 2022, having now won all 10 of her singles matches this year.
After beating three top-20 players to win the Adelaide International title, she has continued that dominance in Melbourne.
Strong serving has been the bedrock of her success, with her returning game – characterised by a tricky backhand slice – also proving difficult to unpick.
Barty has not dropped a set in her opening six matches, conceding just 21 games on her way to the final.
Key, a former US Open runner-up looking to reach her second major final, was nervous from the start and never looked like troubling Barty.
A deep forehand from the Australian brought a break point in the first game of the match and another cross-court winner, punishing a drop-shot from Keys, enabled her to take it.
Barty backed that up with successive holds to love and then broke again for 4-1, with her returning game proving difficult for Keys to cope with.
A double fault brought up a set point after 26 minutes, which Barty converted with a crisp forehand winner down the line.
Barty saved a break point at 2-2 in the second set when she put away a smash – moments after dumping one into the net – and the Australian promptly broke again for 4-2.
The passionate crowd – including 11-time major champion Laver himself – roared as Barty waited to serve on match point, with the volume increasing further when she put away a forehand to win in one hour two minutes.
“I just tried to run and make as many balls as I could, point by point and just try to do the right things every time,” she said.
Meanwhile No.27 seed Danielle Collins delivered a superb performance in the Australian Open semifinals to upset No.7 seed Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-1 and reach her first Grand Slam final.
Collins, whose only previous major semifinal appearance was also at the Australian Open, in 2019, has won her past 11 completed matches. Her only loss since Indian Wells last October was via retirement to Alison Riske in the Linz semifinals. She went unbeaten in Billie Jean King Cup Finals action in November, and the Australian Open is her first event of 2022.
This result is Collins’ seventh career Top 10 win, and second on the Grand Slam stage following her fourth-round upset of Angelique Kerber at the 2019 Australian Open. Last year in Melbourne, Jennifer Brady became the first former women’s college player to reach a Grand Slam final since Kathy Jordan in 1983. The University of Virginia graduate Collins makes it two consecutive college alumnae to contest the Australian Open title match.
Collins is now guaranteed to make her Top 10 debut next week, surpassing her previous career high of No.23, set in Jan. 2019. Last March, she underwent surgery to treat endometriosis; since returning, she has compiled a 36-10 record, including her first two WTA titles in Palermo and San Jose.