Ashleigh Barty flaunts cricket skills before WTA Finals victory

Ahead of the WTA Finals decider, Ash Barty was preparing for her WTA finals by playing some cricket and it worked as Australia's Ash Barty defeated Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-3 in the WTA Finals in Shenzhen.

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Here is a tweet from WTA:

Barty arrived for her final showdown in Shenzhen against Svitolina having been beaten by her in all five of their previous meetings. But in the time since Svitolina last defeated her in March, Barty had won the French Open and reached No 1. She showed vehemently just how far she had come by outplaying Svitolina to win the WTA Finals and its $4.42m (£3.42m) cheque which is the biggest prize money in tennis history.

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This prompted international woman cricketer Alexandra Hartley into a bit of a rethink as she tweeted:

Serena Williams was the last World No 1 who won the WTA Finals five years ago and now Barty has achieved the same feat. This victory marks a stunning season, where the 23-year-old also landed her maiden grand slam crown in Paris and became the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 to secure the year-end top ranking. No other Australian woman has been able to achieve the milestone since rankings were introduced in 1975.

Barty's income for a professional tennis play, man or woman, took her 2019 prize money haul to $16.37 million, trebling her entire career earnings to $23.87 million. She is bound for Perth on Monday hoping to lead Australia to a first Fed Cup title since 1974 in next weekend's final against France.

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