Olivia Gadecki may have fallen just short of becoming a WTA champion in Guadalajara but her performances throughout the week proved that Ashleigh Barty had her reasons why she backed the 22-year-old to make some noise on the WTA Tour.
This past week in Mexico, Australia’s Gadecki clinched a total of six wins to make the final as a qualifier before Magdalena Frech handed her a 7-6 (5) 6-4 defeat. En route to the title match, the Australian caused several upsets as she beat 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens, world No. 7 Danielle Collins, as well as 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan.
Now if you remember well, the new world No. 88 is the same player who was mentored and coached by Barty during the 2023 Australian Open.
“Liv brings genuine life into Australian tennis. She is the one who injected oxygen back into my pre-seasons and my career and I know she has had a unique journey herself. Now I can see it in her eyes that she has got the hunger and the desire and it is about her now putting her head down and finding the ways to enjoy it and keep it alive and keep it fun,” the former world No. 1 said at Melbourne Park in 2023 January.
At the time, Gadecki also shared that she had been mentored by Barty for quite some time and that they used to often practice…
