Barty relishing her winning moment. Credit:AP And then she disappeared. Went out for a nice dinner in Paris with her support team “just to relax and enjoy each other’s company”, then hung out with her family and team in the British Midlands. Whacked a few golf balls, crunching a few, shanking a couple. Watched some cricket and soccer on the telly (on Thursday she had a split-screen going with golf on one and the Matildas on the other). “Just cruised around a little bit.” It’s been a crappy week to spend in England celebrating a highlight of your life to date. Cold, drizzly, miserable. Summer in name only. But you get the impression that, right now, the rain would bounce right off Ashleigh Barty.

Here she is in Birmingham, the 23 year-old from Ipswich ready for another tournament: ranking No. 2 in the world, hair tied tight back behind her head, black polish on her fingernails. Barty in Birmingham. Credit:Chloe Knott/LTA She talks at a million miles an hour, not nervously but precisely, hitting questions back at top speed with answers that land exactly where she wants them to land. Her go-to word is “incredible”. The win in Paris was incredible, her journey over the past three years since she returned to tennis has been incredible, the amount of love and support she’s received since the win has been incredible, the competition in Birmingham is going to be incredible (the sport’s top three women will be playing, all chasing the perfect grass-court curtain-raiser for Wimbledon). There’s one particular phrase Barty has clearly internalised, because she repeats it twice almost word for word in a press conference and then to me: “I’m not going to play my best tennis every day, I’m not going to win every single match, but I can certainly go out there with the right attitude to give myself the best chance”.

This is a champion determined to keep both feet on the ground. Barty insists the win in Paris is not going to change her. It won’t change the way she plays tennis: “for me everything stays the same. Obviously what we’ve been doing is working.” And it won’t change her life: “I’m a pretty low-key kind of person. I live a pretty simple life. I get to enjoy some of the most amazing experiences on the tennis tour but when I go back home, [it’s] very much back to the family, back to normality for me”. Part of this deliberate calm is strategy. The past week has been about rest and recovery. To drain the adrenalin and get back into herself.

“A lot of the time was literally just being really quiet,” she says. “Having time away from people, just by myself. It’s important – just making sure that I get to a place now where we arrive at the next tournament fresh and ready to go. “We didn’t want there to be a ‘hangover’, as such, where I’m not prepared and I’m not ready for the next tournament. We’ve had an incredible fortnight of tennis but now we get to switch focus to the grass court season.” In action during the final of the French Open. Credit:AP She acknowledges it’s an odd thing about the tennis tour: she can’t afford to relax and enjoy this extraordinary moment for more than a day or two. And that’s especially true at this point in the tour: the switch from clay to grass, where she has to find her feet on a new surface, fast.

“It’s a quick change, something we have to deal with every year and something I’ve been very comfortable with [in past years] … I love it and I find it an easy change. It’s just about getting my feet on the grass courts and getting used to it. The bonus is I’ve been playing a lot of tennis and hitting a lot of balls. I’ve got the match toughness and the match fitness.” Loading “I feel great. [Paris] was the first time that I’d really tested [my stamina] in a singles perspective and been there right until the last day of a Slam. It’s really exciting that we’re able to get through that relatively unscathed.” I pick up on the "relatively" but she insists she’s “all good to go”. Barty has said her next goal is to become world No. 1. If the results fall her way, Wimbledon could be that moment – if she continues her current career-best form and her rivals fall away it might even be earlier, at Eastbourne.

No Australian woman has sat at the top of the Women's Tennis Association leaderboard since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976. Speaking of whom, Barty says Goolagong Cawley, whom she counts as a friend, has been in touch by text and on the phone during the week. It wasn’t specific advice, she says, just “pretty vague and pretty friendly. She’s been through each and every experience that you can go through as a tennis player – and the confidence and the belief that she has in me is incredible. “I don’t speak to her too often, but I know when I do get a message from her it’s genuine; it’s heartfelt. All the people around me are there to drive me, to encourage me, criticise me and ultimately make me the best player that I can be. But having Evonne in my corner is pretty special.” And it has helped her enjoy her achievement – which, underneath the pragmatic, practical talk she really is doing.