"It was really good, I felt like I served really well when I needed to," Barty said after the match. "I just tried to do the best I could to get a quick start and then kept the ball rolling from there." She gave what she admitted was an "athlete's answer" on the potential Williams clash, saying "I'm just going to worry about Alison [Riske] first". Dart congratulates Barty on her win. Credit:AP Dart, ranked 182 in the world, tossed and retossed the ball before serves, apparently overawed by both the moment and her opponent.

Though Dart showed flashes of brilliance Barty always had an answer, totting up just six unforced errors in the match and dropping just three points on serve in the first set. Loading In the second set, already 4-1 up, Barty was down 0-40 with her serve about to be broken for the first time. But Barty reached a little deeper into her bag of tricks and denied every break point with typical versatility and style: a clever spinning slice, two aces, a perfectly placed volley and a fast forehand winner. After the match Barty said that was an important moment in the game. "I think I got better as the match went on, which was really pleasing. It was really important for me to get out of that 4-1 game from Love-40. In that stretch of seven or eight points after that, I played some of my best tennis. I was in control of those points."

Barty also had some unexpected help in the form of the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team who staged a flypast in support of London's Pride Parade at a tense moment in the second game of the match. With Dart on 15-15 in her first service game, and having served a fault, the Red Arrows roared overhead as she tossed the ball tentatively in the air. She tried to recover her composure but double faulted, and within minutes was two games down with Barty gaining power and confidence on almost every stroke. Dart, 22, said she had learned a "tough lesson". "[Barty] didn't allow me to get into the match really at all," she said. "She has a lot of variety in her game. She plays exceptionally well. Yeah, she's on an unbelievable roll at the moment. I can see her going very far in this tournament."