The world No. 1 was utterly dominant throughout the tournament, taking a historic title without even dropping a set.
Australian tennis fans had to wait more than four decades for one of them to be crowned Australian Open champions, with the latest home win courtesy of Chris O’Neil.
Barty’s grand slam tally now stands at three – her previous titles came at the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon in 2021 – and the 25-year-old is without a doubt the most dominant force on the women’s tour at the moment.
With most of her career probably ahead of her, the only question left around Barty’s grand slam credentials is: how many?
“I’ve said several times that tonight I’m so lucky that there are a lot of people here who love and support me,” Barty said in her post-match interview. “I am a lucky and lucky girl to have so much love in my corner, we started together from the beginning. We did it all together, no one has changed in our team. I love you to death.
“As an Aussie, the most important part of this tournament is being able to share it with so many people and the public, you’ve been nothing short of exceptional.
“This audience is one of the nicest I’ve ever paid for and you have brought me so much joy today and helped me play my best tennis so thank you for all your love and support over the past few weeks.
“This is a dream come true for me and I am so proud to be an Aussie. Until next time.”
Blistering begins
Neither player showed any signs of nerves in the opening phase and exchanged some blistering shots early on.
Collins’ signature backhand caused all sorts of trouble for Barty, with the Aussie struggling to contain the powerful foundation as it ripped through the Rod Laver field.
However, Barty was able to respond to her own serve and crushed an early ace of 181km/h past her opponent while managing to save an early break point – much to the delight of the crowd.
The partisan home support certainly showed its loyalty early on, erupting every time Barty won a run. They really got something to cheer about in Collins’ third service game, as a couple of loose groundstrokes and a wild double foul gave Barty a service break.
That certainly helped ease any tension that Barty was still feeling, as the home favorite ripped off two more save handles to claim the opening set in an instant.
Even reaching the final of Collins is one of the most remarkable comeback stories in tennis.
Last April, she had emergency surgery for endometriosis — a condition in which the tissue that lines the uterus grows outside — and suffered an abdominal injury during the French Open.
The 28-year-old has spoken candidly about the excruciating pain she has endured, describing it as one of the worst she has experienced.
Collins credited the surgeon with saving her career and she now plays one of the best tennis of her life, and her run to the final in Melbourne is expected to push her into the top 10 in the world for the first time.
A huge credit must come to the player for remaining unperturbed that a close opening set had moved away from her so quickly.
The American often wears her heart on her sleeve on the pitch, but until now had kept her emotions hidden on the biggest occasion of her career.
That changed at the start of the second set, however, when Barty began to struggle again with her opponent’s powerful shots, who now seemed to have just that little bit more punch.
Two unusual mistakes by Barty in her opening service game of the set allowed Collins to break into the match for the first time.
The Rod Laver arena fell silent for the most part, save for the roar of Collins. “Come on,” she yelled, fist clenched toward her box.
It was quite a remarkable change in momentum from the opening set, with Collins now dominating almost every rally.
The crowd sensed Barty’s nerves and did their best to get her back in the game; a forehand winner down the line was greeted with arguably the loudest cheer of the evening yet.
However, it wasn’t enough to get Barty back on track, as the magnitude of the opportunity now seemed to weigh heavily on her.
The forehand turned wild and erratic and Collins found another service break to take the set seemingly out of reach of her opponent.
But Barty, the fighter she is on the field, fought back and recovered from one of those service interruptions, before firing off a love service play to put the pressure back on Collins.
It was the pressure Collins couldn’t handle when her first serve and mostly trusted backhand failed her, leaving Barty a second service break.
The Rod Laver arena, which had been subdued for most of the second set, erupted, louder now than it had been all evening.
At one point, Collins seemed displeased with some people in the crowd starting to scream before the points were scored, prompting the referee to warn those present about their behavior.
Barty held the serve to bring the scores to 5-5 and what seemed like a walkover set for Collins 20 minutes ago had now turned into a brawl.
Both players played solid serve games to take the set to a tiebreak, although Collins must have wished that first serve had come a few games earlier.
Barty rode to a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak and never looked forward to losing it from then on, eventually finishing it off 7-2 – and now it was party time on Rod Laver.
After 44 long years of waiting, Australia once again has its own Grand Slam champion in singles.
