Ashleigh Barty has crowned her incredible comeback to tennis with a stunning French Open final triumph.
Five years after quitting the sport in despair, Barty joined Australian legends Margaret Court (1962, '64, '69, '70, '73), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1971) and Lesley Bowrey (1963, '65) on the Roland Garros honour roll with a ruthless 6-1 6-3 victory over unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
The win caps off a phenomenal turnaround since returning to tennis in 2016, with a ranking of 623, following an 18-month sabbatical where she played cricket in the WBBL with Brisbane Heat.
The new queen of clay will also pocket a cool $3.74 million after taking out her maiden grand slam at a tournament where she'd never passed the second round in her five previous visits.
Barty's maiden grand slam victory rockets the 23-year-old to No.2 in the world and franks her name as one of the early favourites to land tennis's greatest prize at Wimbledon next month.
Her new ranking will be the highest by an Australian woman since Goolagong Cawley reached top spot in 1976, and she follows her idol's footsteps by becoming the second Indigenous Australian to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup.
The Queenslander is also the first Australian singles champion in Paris since Court clinched the last of her five titles 46 years ago.
Barty's win puts her in exalted company as she became only the 17th Australian woman to win a major - and first since Samantha Stosur at the US Open triumph in 2011.
AAP
