Friday, 29 March 2019:
 | | ASHLEIGH BARTY of Australia celebrates winning a point in her singles match against Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine during the Fed Cup tie between Australia and the Ukraine at the Canberra Tennis Centre in Canberra, Australia. | |
|
Ashleigh Barty needed all day to book her spot in the biggest final of her career at the Miami Open.
Barty walked away from tennis about five years ago, saying she was basically burned out at 17. She returned three years ago.
And now at 22, she's better than ever.
The 12th-seeded Australian endured three rain delays on Thursday before ousting 21st-seeded Anett Kontaveit 6-3 6-3 in the first women's semi-final.
Barty will play fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova in the decider after Simona Halep's chance to return to No. 1 fell apart as she lost a rain-delayed clash 7-5 6-1.
Halep, the No. 2 seed, would have replaced Naomi Osaka as the top-ranked women's player if she advanced.
"Obviously, I've been doing the right things throughout the week to put be able to put myself in a position to play for a title," said Barty, who will rise to a career-best No 9 in the world rankings next week.
"You have to go out there and embrace it."
That was also her approach to a very long - and very wet - day.
The Barty-Kontaveit match was delayed by more than an hour due to the conditions.
Barty trailed 0-2 when play was first halted just six minutes into the centre court match.
After the resumption the Queenslander broke Kontaveit's serve to get back to 2-2 before the players were again forced off the court for more than two hours.
Barty handled the prolonged absence much better and, after going ahead 5-3, she broke Kontaveit's serve to love to claim the opening set, aided by a double fault on set point.
Trailing 1-3 in the second set, Barty stuck to her game to win the next five games as Kontaveit's error count mounted and the weather intervened again.
Barty finally secured the win with an ace on her second match point, 6-1/2 hours after the original scheduled start.
"I have been here for 12 hours today and I'm really happy with the way I was able to come out after the rain delays and kind of get on the front foot pretty early," said Barty, who has three career titles.
"I did the best with what I had and was able to get out of some tight service games at crucial times and get a bit of a roll on."
Barty has already beaten Pliskova in her career but she won't be the favourite come Saturday in the final.
And she's fine with that.
"I can go in there and play with freedom and try to play my best tennis," she said.
