Ash Barty ends 44-year wait for home Australian Open winner by beating Danielle Collins and moves step closer to career Grand Slam

Ash Barty fought back from a second set struggle to beat Danielle Collins 6-3 7-6 and become the first home winner of the Australian open in 44 years.

It's now a third Grand Slam title for Barty who claimed the French Open in 2019 and last year's Wimbledon crown.

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And the Australian, after dispatching her battling American opponent, was then handed the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup from her mentor, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who won the title four times in the 1970s.

Goolagong provided inspiration to Barty over the years and it will have been a proud moment for indigenous Australians.

Barty has Ngarigo ancestry through her father’s side and she regularly talks about her heritage.

During the Australian Open, she said: “I’m a very, very proud indigenous woman. I love my heritage. It’s what connects me to all of you here today. It’s what connects me to the land.”

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On Goolagong, she added: “We’re connected through our heritage and she’s paved a path for so many indigenous youth coming up, both in her career and also in her work off the court.”

This was a huge occasion for Australian sport and among the crowd were two people who could put themselves in Barty's shoes - Sydney Olympic Games heroes Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe.

Having shrugged off the pressure to breeze through to the final, Barty had to use all her competitive instincts to overcome 30th-ranked American Collins, who brought the best out of her opponent in a terrific second set.

The world number one understandably looked nervous in front of her home crowd while Collins settled reasonably well and immediately sought to pounce on Barty's second serve.

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At 2-2, the home favourite found herself staring at a break point but whipped a forehand winner to save it and from there Barty, and the tense crowd, relaxed into the occasion.

A wild double fault from Collins on break point in the next game gave Barty the advantage, and the top seed was untroubled through the rest of the first set.

The 25-year-old's serve is the foundation of her game, and she had been broken just once in six matches, but that became twice in the second game of the second set as Barty again paid for not landing more first serves.

Collins chose that moment to unleash one of her trademark yells of 'Come on' towards her team, and there was another when she saved two break points in the next game.

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The 28-year-old was into top gear now and producing the first-strike tennis that carried her to a swift semi-final victory over Iga Swiatek, who said afterwards that Collins' ball was the fastest she had faced.

That was very likely a factor in the two double faults that saw Barty broken again to trail 5-1, although she retrieved one of the breaks in the next game to lift the anxious crowd.

Collins was two points away from the set at 5-3 30-0 but back came Barty, with the American earning boos for asking the umpire to appeal for quiet during points.

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Heading into the tie-break, Barty knew this was the moment to strike and she surged into a 6-2 lead before passing Collins and letting out a huge roar of delight and relief.

And now it is just the US Open for Barty to win to complete a career Grand Slam.