Australia celebrates ‘finest day’ in ladies’s sport

It has been defined by many as the most beautiful day in Australian women’s carrying records. m Australians woke up on Monday to a cascade of achievements from the nation’s female athletes in tennis, golf, browsing, and rowing. First, surfer Sally Fitzgibbons reduce a monster wave at the Rio Pro to cruise to the world’s primary ranking in surfing.

A few hours later, French Open tennis champion Ashleigh Barty received her 0.33 event of the year – that means she will become Australia’s first global number one in sixteen years. Celebratory news announcements within the morning have been interrupted via more significant milestones. Golfer Hannah Green ranked just 114 inside the world, grabbed a surprise victory on the Women’s PGA Championship in Minnesota. It made her the third Australian girl ever to win a golfing fundamental. Meanwhile, on the Rowing World Cup, Australia’s ladies eight crew won gold.

“It’s hard even to put a morning like this morning into phrases,” says Australian Broadcasting Corp sports journalist Catherine Murphy. “It has simply been a splendid 12 hours.” Australian Associated Press golfing reporter Evin Priest tweeted that this “HAS to be the greatest day in Aus women’s recreation.” Elsewhere online, local reactions had been as joyous. The timing can be a twist of fate; however, as many Australian sports activities commentators have stated, such spoils were coming. Women’s sports activities have long been under-prioritized and beneath-resourced at the elite level compared to their male opposite numbers.

But in recent times, a mixture of high-profile activities and once-in-a-technology stars have boosted the profile of the Australian ladies’ games. Most lately, Barty has led the charge. The 23-yr-antique indigenous tennis celebrity from Queensland has won lovers together with her dominant play and unassuming demeanor. She may be most effective the second Australian woman to attain the global number one after Evonne Goolagong Cawley, another indigenous lady, in 1976. “She’s simply one of the maximum superb stories you’ll come upon in sport,” says Murphy.

Three years in the past, Barty changed into ranked 623 within the international. She took an 18-month tennis sabbatical to play cricket before returning to tennis in 2016. “To come again and do what she’s done in the beyond 12 months is great,” Murphy says. “She has thrust Australian tennis into the limelight in a big manner. However, she is visible because of the type of humble champion that everybody can aspire to.” Footballer Sam Kerr has been Australia’s different leading light, she says. The 25-12 months-antique aim scorer and Matildas group captain has risen to be one of the international’s best players.

The Matildas bowed out of the Women’s World Cup on Sunday – dropping to Norway inside the quarterfinals – however, the neighborhood coverage of the group is the best it has ever been, specialists say. It has come simultaneously as a global cup historically watched using more Australians – in guys’ cricket – takes region. “It’s now not simply soccer lovers who’ve been speak approximately the Matildas these previous few weeks,” she says. “They have certainly transcended into the existing, into the consciousness of each Australian.”