Ashleigh Barty, the youngest player still left in the women’s main draw at Roland Garros, says she was overcome with relief after she disposed of Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecka 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 to claim her first ever win at a Grand Slam.
The 17-year-old Australian is playing her fifth consecutive Grand Slam but had lost all her previous first round matches, including a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Petra Kvitova in Paris last year, after which some had wondered whether it was too early for her on the big stage.
But the world No183 believes that defeat from helped her oust Hradecka, a finalist in Strasbourg last week, and book a second round meeting with No12 seed Maria Kirilenko.
“It’s a very different situation. Last year playing Petra was maybe a little bit of David and Goliath maybe, but I was happy to go out there today. I knew that I could win. I just wanted to execute my game plan and do what I do,” said Barty, who made the Australian Open doubles final alongside fellow Aussie Casey Dellacqua earlier this year.
“(Last year against Petra) we were undecided whether to play or not because I was actually injured so we weren’t sure if I was going to play the day before.
“But now that I went out there and was able to get that experience – you can’t buy experiences like that. It helped me this year. Maybe it was too early last year but it certainly helped me this year.”
Barty’s match with Hradecka was initially scheduled for Tuesday but was pushed over to the following day due to the rain and the Aussie teenager says she wouldn’t let that change get to her head.
On how she felt about making her first Grand Slam second round, she said: “I think today with the situation I was in, maybe relief more than anything.
"Having the first set under your belt and then kind of letting slip away is a bit disappointing. But I was able to re-gather and kind of run away in that third set so it’s more relief than anything else.”
Not knowing she was playing Kirilenko next, having not seen the draw, Barty joked: “Let’s be honest, I’ve never made it to the second round before so I didn’t think it was worth it.”
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