Women's Tennis: 4 Young players who could win a Grand Slam in 2019

#1 Ashleigh Barty

Ashleigh Barty with the 2018 WTA Elite Trophy

Ashleigh Barty is the top-ranked Australian player in both Singles(World Number 15) and Doubles (World Number 7).

Barty had a superb start to the year making the finals of the Sydney International in only her second tournament of the year. She was seeded for the first time at the Australian Open and had the full backing of the Australian public. She notched up an impressive victory over fellow youngster Aryna Sabalenka in the first round.

She lost to another young gun Naomi Osaka in the 3rd round much to the disappointment of the Aussie fans. At the French Open, Barty lost in the second round to Serena Williams in a tight 3-set contest.

Starting the grass court season, Barty looked strong on her favorite surface as she won the Nottingham Open. She reached the 3rd round at Wimbledon. At the Premier 5 level, Barty made the semis and the 3rd round at Canada and Cincinnati respectively losing to World #1 Simona Halep on both occasions.

Ranked inside the Top-20, Barty was eligible to compete at the WTA Elite Trophy. She lost her opening match-up to Sabalenka but bounced back to win her second group match against Caroline Garcia. With other results going her away, Barty scrapped through to the semis to defeat top-seed Julia Gorges. In the final, she won against Wang Qiang despite her opponent receiving the entire support of a partisan crowd.

The Australian who started the year 2017 ranked a lowly 325 after taking a two-year sabbatical to pursue cricket at a professional level, has quickly risen up the ranks in the WTA charts and will have the full backing of the Australian crowd as she gears up for the Opening Grand Slam of 2019 where with a ranking inside the Top-16 she is not expected to face any of the big names until the 4th round.