By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday April 3, 2021

Ashleigh Barty  has been the target of unfair criticism due to the fact that she held on to the WTA’s No.1 ranking despite the fact that she didn’t play for a full year after the pandemic hit.



But Barty’s never been a player that worries about the uncontrollables, and in this case she isn’t concerned at all about the number next to her name—she’s more interested in conducting herself as a true professional and constantly working to improve her level of game.

“I mean, everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” she said after claiming the Miami Open title on Saturday (she's now played 15 finals since the start of 2019). “That's absolutely fine. I can't control what anyone else thinks or what anyone else says. For me I just keep trying to do what we do.”

Barty says she doesn’t feel undeserving at all. After she became just the sixth player in WTA history to successfully defend the Miami Open title, it’s pretty clear that her feelings are justified.

“I feel like we deserve to be top of the rankings,” she said. “We have had such a fantastic season. Also, I think everyone needs to understand that it's a pandemic. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for a lot of us to go through, so it's a bit of a difficult situation. But, yeah, no, it doesn't ever really get to me. I mean, it's just what people say and I can't change their opinion, so it doesn't stress me out at all.”

How about this for some quality company for @ashbarty!

Women to successfully defend Miami 🏆

Stefanie Graf (1987-88, 94-96)
Monica Seles (1990-91)
Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario (1992-93)
Venus Williams (1998-99)
Serena Williams (2002-04, 2007-08, 2013-15)
Ash Barty (2019, 2021) pic.twitter.com/A87oJh4d58

— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) April 3, 2021