Barty and Swiatek are favorites in the Australian semi-finals

for the grand finale. Thursday, The Australian Open shines as the top two of the tournament, which will determine the address in Melbourne next Saturday. Australia’s world number one and a wide favorite, Ashleigh Barty, weighed in in the first semi-final with America’s Madison Keys, then faced Poland’s other American Iga Swiatek, Danielle Collins.

With his full tennis and hefty strength, Barty comes off the cusp of another American, Jessica Pegula, and now has a more complex competitor, due to experience, strength, and quality, like Keys.

Barty has two Grand Slam singles cups, since she celebrated at Roland Garros 2019 and Wimbledon 2021, and her goal is to be crowned in front of her people. In fact, the Australian hasn’t won the singles title for this event since Chris O’Neill did in 1978.

This is a huge challenge for Barty, once again on the gorgeous Rod Laver Arena, this time against Keys, the finalist at the 2017 US Open. His opponent hits the ball hard and also loves to take the initiative, but he usually falls into a clear anomaly.

Barty, who maintained a positive 2-1 against Keys in the last game against the American, won the quarter-finals of the 2019 edition of Roland Garros that she would eventually win.

Meanwhile, Swiatek, the 2020 Roland Garros champion, to the surprise of many, is the seventh seed and the youngest of the four, with only 20 years old. The pole was suffering too much, against Estonian Kaia Kanepi, who was in turn the hangman in the previous round by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 in the WTA rankings.

With her variables, Swiatek emerges as a favorite in her second Grand Slam semi-final, against Collins returning to such a high score at a major tournament after Australia two seasons ago.