That was one of the highest quality matches I played all year, petra always has a way of bringing out the best in me, she really does.

Ash Barty

Categorized in : Sports

There's one more very important week to cap off what would be the most perfect year, this Fed Cup final is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. It's been two or three years in the making for the current team that we've got. It's taken a lot of work, a lot of trust from (captain) Alicia (Molik).

I felt like I executed really well tonight and I think overall I knew I had to come out here and play aggressively and play to win, it was a really good match tonight and I'm really excited to have another chance to play here on this beautiful court.

I've played Naomi and Petra recently in Beijing, (I'm) looking forward to playing Belinda, I don't think I've actually ever played her before. It's a really exciting group.

It's been a goal from the very start of the year to qualify for the WTA Finals, i'm proud of the work my team and I have put in to get to this point, and I'm honored to be among the top eight players of the season.

There's always room for improvement every single match that you play, i think that's the beauty of this sport: now that I'm still alive in the tournament, I get an opportunity to do that in my next round.

There were parts of my game that I still want to clean up, i had to hit a lot of balls tonight, it was extremely tough.

I think it probably started with the serve for me, i mean, giving Svetlana that many looks at second serves I know I'm not going to get free points off my first serve off Sveta. She's an incredible returner and retrieves a long way so is able to make a lot of returns.

I wasn't able to adapt quickly enough, or well enough, to play a match of the standard that I expect myself to play and I want myself to play, and Sofia served today in the big moments. She served particularly well and got a lot of free points.

It's disappointing right now. Give me an hour or so, we'll be all good. The sun's still going to come up tomorrow, overall it's been a hell of a trip ... Obviously it's a tough pill to swallow. In the same breath, it's been an incredible few months.

If people can watch my matches, great. If they can't, they can't. That's up to the broadcasters, not me.

Just needed to make sure all cameras were spot on, and just, I think, plug one back in.

She’s been a Top 10 player for a number of weeks now, one of the most consistent on the tour over the last, I don’t know how many years — five or 10 years. She’s always been there, always been knocking on the door, always giving herself the opportunity, i know that Grand Slam title for her is not far away.

It's the ultimate test, angie’s obviously had success here before.

I just keep fighting, I just keep trying.

It was some of the better tennis I played throughout the whole week, garbine forced me to play at that level. It was a great final and I’m happy with the progression of the level of tennis through the week.

I had so much fun out here today, and I think I missed you guys so much as well, this is one of my favourite places to play in the entire world, and for me to be able to come back after 11 or 12 months off now- it’s been a while, but I miss this feeling, I miss coming out here and competing.

I ’m so excited to get started next week.

It’s absolutely fantastic to be back. I’ve genuinely missed this so much, i have been getting a little bit impatient the last two or three months, getting ready to play.

It’s going to be a really good day in Adelaide, i can’t wait to get out there.

They can think whatever they like. If they expect me to win the tournament, then that’s their expectations, but mine certainly aren’t that for now. It’s about doing the right things right from the start, from the very first match. If it’s good enough, it is. And if it’s not, it’s not. But that’s OK.