Chris Evert: 'I would put money on Ash Barty completing a Career Grand Slam' - Legends’ Voice

On Saturday, Ash Barty and Danielle Collins will face one another in the 2022 Australian Open final. Rewind 40 years and fans witnessed a three-set classic between two of the greatest players of all time, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The match went in Chris’ favour to not only mark her maiden title in Melbourne and 13th Grand Slam title, but also a coveted Career Grand Slam.

Ad/> In the first-ever edition of Legends’ Voice, Chris reflects on the achievement, her iconic rivalry with Martina and comparisons to the women’s game of today: Australian Open women‘Pieces of the puzzle’ — Barty reveals help from mindset coachA DAY AGO 40 years ago, the Australian Open was a very different tournament. For starters, it was on grass and played at Kooyong Stadium, five miles down the road from Melbourne Park. Then it was either played just after Christmas or a couple of weeks before, so a lot of players opted to stay home.

Grand Slams also weren’t looked upon with as much importance as they are now and in the early 80s, we were heavily invested in supporting the earlier stages of the WTA Tour, which meant we placed WTA tournaments on the same playing field as Grand Slams. I believe I only played the tournament six times during an 18-year career, but obviously if I was playing in this day and age, I would have played it a lot more because now it’s just so heavily regarded to win a major. In my day, Wimbledon was the one everyone wanted to win, but nowadays I think every Slam is pretty equal in its stature.

But the Australian Open has probably evolved more than any other Grand Slam in the past ten to twenty years. It’s the happy Slam! Everyone’s so relaxed and the players really appreciate the crowd. The 1982 final was a