Netizens are loving world no.1 Ash Barty's cricket flick during Australian Open; WATCH

World no. 1 ranked tennis player in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Ash Barty is due to face Amanda Anisimova in the fourth-round match of the ongoing Australian Open 2022. The two-time Grand Slam title winner from Australia, Barty has been in stellar form as she is yet to go down in a single game in the season-opening major, having won the warm-up tournament in Adelaide in the first half of January. Meanwhile, the Australian Open took to their official Twitter handle on Saturday and shared a video clip from Barty’s practice session at Melbourne, where she can be seen playing a leg glance, which is a cricket shot.

Watch Ash Barty playing the leg-glance:

Netizens react to Ash Barty playing the leg glance 

Barty can be seen practising on the court in the video before playing a leg-glance with the tennis racquet and ball. Indian cricket lovers were quick to spot Australian Open’s tweet and took to Twitter by storm with their reactions. While fans hailed her playing the elegant cricketing short, a fan mentioned that she didn’t even premeditate the shot and just played it with instinct. 

Ash Barty's connection with cricket

Ash Barty is currently ranked at the top of the WTA singles ranking. However, after reaching the doubles final in every Grand Slam championship in 2014, she decided to quit tennis altogether and play her trade in cricket. She spent 2015 playing professional cricket in Australia, most notably for the Brisbane Heat in the inaugural season of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). She decided to return to professional tennis in February 2016, a few weeks after the WBBL ended. She went ahead to finish 2017 inside the top 20 rankings in both doubles and singles WTA rankings.

Ash Barty's Australian Open 2022 campaign

In the Australian Open 2022, Barty was the first seed and she opened the tournament by defeating Lesia Tsurenki 6-0, 6-1 in the first round. She further defeated Lucia Bronzetti 6-1. 6-1 in the second round, before defeating Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-3 in the third round. She will now be scheduled to face Anisimova in the fourth round on January 23.

(Image: AP/Twitter-@AustralianOpen)