Australian Open live: Ash Barty on track to surpass Roger Federer in Aussie hearts

Ash Barty may have 19 less grand slam titles than Roger Federer, but she is poised to eclipse the Swiss icon as tennis’s most marketable athlete in Australia.

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Ash Barty may have 19 less grand slam titles than Roger Federer, but she is poised to eclipse the Swiss icon as tennis’s most marketable athlete in Australia.

The popularity of the Australian superstar is soaring and she’s now just one victory away from her second consecutive Australian Open semi-final.

Follow our live coverage of her match against No. 25 seed Karolina Muchova, which starts at 11am, in today’s blog.

Tonight, world No. 2 Rafael Nadal will take on Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in a mouth-watering men’s quarterfinal clash.

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Barty on track to surpass Federer

“When you look behind the numbers, her likeability is higher than Federer’s, it’s just her awareness that needs to grow," Condon said, as reported by The Age.

“More exposure through on-court TV time, but also through other media commitments and sponsor commitments is only going to put her in front of a wider audience more often, which will see her push up that likeability metric.

“She’s probably going to struggle to become more liked, it’s probably about her broadening her appeal.

“It sounds silly, because you and I go, ‘Everyone knows who Ash Barty is’, she’s incredibly well liked but her awareness is still around 70 per cent of Australians are aware of her, whereas at Kyrgios is 78 (per cent) – and that’s for all the wrong reasons."

The Gemba Group’s “asset power” rankings

1. Roger Federer

2. Ashleigh Barty

3. Rafael Nadal

4. Cathy Freeman

5. Sally Pearson

6. Mick Fanning

7. Anna Meares

8. Steve Smith

9. Ian Thorpe

10. Mitchell Starc

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