Ashleigh Barty celebrated her breakthrough French Open victory with an expletive used often enough by most people not named Margaret Court, the last Australian to win the title, 46 years ago, and a Christian fundamentalist whom the new champion respects but disagrees strongly with for her strident views on gay marriage.

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When Barty finished the final here on Saturday with a smash that sent the ball bouncing high into the seats on Court Philippe Chatrier to beat the Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova, 6-1, 6-3, in an hour and 10 minutes, she looked dumbstruck and mouthed: “What the fuck just happened?”

It was a typically down-to-earth reaction from a widely respected player her compatriot Pat Cash describes as “extremely popular” in the locker room. Cash, who reached the fourth round here in 1988 and now works for Eurosport, added: “Where she has come in the last year is just incredible. She was a decent player and a very good doubles player – and the next thing you know, she’s a grand slam champion.”

Collecting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen (a free spirit from the Jazz Age who would have cheered her immediate reaction to winning), Barty emulated Court but ignored that courtside observation, preferring to namecheck her fellow Australian and contemporary Sam Stosur, who reached the final in 2010.

Court, 76, is very much from another era, with different values. The West Australian, whose 24 majors are unmatched in tennis history, said in an interview two years ago the sport was “full of lesbians”, provoking anger inside and outside the game. Barty was moved to support her doubles partner, Casey Dellacqua, who has two children with her partner, Amanda Judd.

Play Video 2:01 Ashleigh Barty celebrates winning French Open and first grand slam title – video

But beaming non-stop in one interview after another, Barty on Saturday nominated one former champion above all others as her inspiration: Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Victory made Barty the first Australian woman since Cawley in 1976 to reach No 2 in the world. It is doubly satisfying for her because they share an indigenous heritage, proud representatives of their race and their country.

“It’s remarkable,” Barty said. “Evonne sent me a text a couple days ago and said this was her first grand slam [among seven]. I spotted her name on the trophy. I’ll give her a call a little bit later on.

“It’s amazing she’s created this path for indigenous tennis in Australia. Now it’s becoming more nationwide. There are more opportunities for kids to start playing tennis, both male and female. Hopefully we can continue to create those opportunities and let kids know that this is an option for a career and they can enjoy it. And even if it’s not, it’s a sport they can play for life.”

Barty is also a straight-talking hero to other players, present and former – including Gabriela Sabatini, who earlier in the week nominated her as her favourite player.

“That’s extremely kind of her. When I started playing tennis, I tried to build a unique style. I tried to build my own style. There were players that were dominant who I looked up to. In particular that was Evonne. When I got a little bit older, I began to realise what she achieved and just how remarkable that was. But there are so many amazing players, gracious players, who have this style and this flair that I always tried to emulate when I was a kid.

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“My coach always used to bring me back and say: ‘We’re creating our style.’ That’s probably one of the most magical things that’s happened to me.”

Barty quit tennis in 2014 when the pressure of expectation became too much for her. She was marked down as a prodigy from her earliest days, and nine years ago spent time in Las Vegas with Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi as part of a youth development programme. At 15, she was girls’ champion at Wimbledon. Within two years she was a three-times doubles slam finalist. In September 2014, after losing at the US Open, she was burned out – and turned to cricket, where she did well enough to play in the women’s Big Bash tournament in Australia.

“In 12 months she could’ve played for Australia,” the Queensland coach, Andy Richards, told AAP’s Darren Walton this week. However, while her sabbatical cleared her troubled mind, tennis drew her back in 2016. She admits she might never have played again had she not taken that break.

“I needed time to step away, to live a normal life, because this tennis life certainly isn’t normal. I needed time to grow as a person, to mature. I left all of my options open. It was just a natural progression for me coming back to tennis.”

On Saturday it all came together as she dismantled the hitherto unassailable Vondrousova, who did not drop a set reaching the final, and came from 5-3 down twice to beat Johanna Konta in the semi-finals. Barty’s serve, the core of her game, was too strong and incisive for the elegant Czech, and she took her ace count to 38, the most in the tournament.

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“My serve is a massive part of my game,” she said, “and I try and think my way around the court. I know where opponents like to return and, if they shift their position, where they return. I try and expose those spots as best that I can.”

Barty now heads for Wimbledon and her favourite surface.

“I know I’m playing good tennis,” she said, without a hint of arrogance. “Wimbledon is a long way away, and I have to be able to celebrate this with my team, take a few days off, make sure I get my body and mind right so that, when I come out to play my next tournament, I’m ready to go.” She has pulled out of Nottingham but will play Birmingham and Eastbourne before Wimbledon. She will, no doubt, receive the warmest of receptions – including from her parents, Josie and Robert, who flew into London on Saturday and watched her triumph on television there.

“I love the grass court season. Hopefully I can bring some really good level of tennis again to give myself a chance to go deep in a major again.”