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Tennis great John Newcombe says getting to the net and not being defensive will be the key to Wimbledon glory for Australia's world No.1 Ash Barty.
John Newcombe is pleading with Ash Barty to back her exquisite net game as the world No.1 strives to add the strawberries and cream to a truly special anniversary in Australian tennis.
Fifty years after Newcombe and her idol Evonne Goolagong Cawley completed the Wimbledon singles title double, Barty will line up as the women's top seed at The All England Club on Monday.
Newcombe is convinced the 25-year-old has all the tools to become only Australia's third women's champion on London's hallowed lawns after Goolagong Cawley and Margaret Court - but only if she doesn't retreat into her defensive shell.
Newcombe, a three-time Wimbledon champion, hasn't forgotten how Barty crashed out with a fourth-round defeat to American Alison Riske while also top seed two years ago.
"She was playing too far behind the baseline and the girl she was playing, Riske, she was getting into the net on Ash and she just had her pinned back and Ash never looked like she was going to win," Newcombe told AAP on Tuesday.
"It's the same when Ash plays in all of her matches. I find that if she hangs back behind the baseline and plays her defence game, it's not nearly as good.
"She hits a lot of slice backhands and a slice backhand from two metres behind the baseline is useless.
"If you're going to play slice, you've got to be in or on the baseline or just behind it, and when she does that, her whole game lifts up.
"Then she can manoeuvre her opponent around court and be creative.
"So I just hope she plays aggressively and positively."
And that involves Barty applying her accomplished net game and venturing forward behind her booming serves and heavy forehands at every opportunity.
"Ash is the best volleyer in women's tennis," said the former world No.1 and seven-times grand slam champion.
"That's why when I'm watching on TV, I'm like 'Ash, get into the bloody net'."
A hip injury that forced her mid-match withdrawal from this month's French Open will leave Barty without a grass-court lead-up event before Wimbledon.
Newcombe says that's a worry but still maintains the world No.1 can live up to her seeding and pre-tournament favouritism and add the Wimbledon women's crown to the girls' junior title that Barty won as a 15-year-old a decade ago.
"Hopefully she's recovered OK. If not, we'll find out in the first week. It can be a bit slippery on those courts," he said.
"If she survives the first week and then gets through to the quarter-final, that means she's adapted and it's all coming together and she'll be very hard to stop."
