Todd Woodbridge has showered Ash Barty with praise, claiming her ascent into the world's top 10 as "one of the greatest results" Australian sport has had in "the last 20 to 30 years".
Barty's extraordinary run to the Miami Open title at the weekend featured wins over three top 10 players, including fifth seed Karolina Pliskova in the final.
The Australian also ousted rival and friend Petra Kvitova in the quarters, marking Barty's first win over the Czech leftie in five attempts.
Barty guaranteed her move into the top 10 for the first time in her career with the Kvitova win, but rubber-stamped it with the Miami crown.
MORE: Barty proves to herself that she 'belongs' on tour following Miami breakthrough
On Monday, Barty officially became the first Australian player to crack the top 10 since Sam Stosur, who fell out of the top 10 in May 2013.
Lleyton Hewitt was the last male player to do it since Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis in the 1990s, but former No. 1 Hewitt fell out of the 10 in mid-2006.
Following Barty's Miami success, Woodbridge suggested the 22-year-old is just fingertips away from having what it takes to compete for major titles.
"Barty’s achievement is one of the great female performances, not just in Australian tennis, but in Australian sport," Woodbridge wrote for Tennismash.
"And it’s not finished yet - this is just a consistent rise. With her self-belief, she's on the road to now go deep at majors.
"She has shown there isn’t a player she can’t beat."
Woodbridge acknowledged that Barty’s rise is concurrent with the likes of Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova being in the twilight of the their careers.
However, he said that current top-ranked players are not as "physically dominant as those athletes were", which plays in Barty's favour.
Barty's record against top-ranked players proves she isn't overawed by the occasion - in 2019, Barty is 5-3 against top 10 players, and 2-0 against top 5 players.
She's in serious form - Barty's win-loss record in 2019 is now 18-3, she has reached the final eight or better at five of her past six events, and she has won 25 of her last 30 matches.
Woodbridge conceded the diminutive Barty - who stands at 1.66m - will "always have to cope" with bigger, stronger players on tour.
However, according to Woodbridge - who won 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles and a further six Grand Slam mixed doubles titles - Barty now has the game to go deep in major tournaments.
"Her skills are the best currently on the WTA tour," he continued.
"She has reached this position in the game because there’s been an improvement in her serve... the serving stats show she’s improved the pace and the amount of free points she wins.
"She has also learned, more than most other women on tour, to use her forehand with heavy spin... when the serve and forehand work as weapons, she’s also got one of the best slice backhands the game has seen to be able to break up the play."
Following her win over Pliskova, Barty opened up about her break from tennis and, after a "beautiful" journey back to the sport, how she now feels like she belongs on tour.
Woodbridge highlighted her "newfound confidence" as a factor in her rise, remembering back to her Australian Open upset of Sharapova as a turning point of sorts.
"When she came back after her break from the game, she realised she had great talent, loved the game, and had an opportunity most don’t get in life," Woodbridge said.
"She’s become more confident in herself, she feels she belongs, and her body language has changed.
"There was a moment in her fourth-round win over Sharapova when, had it been two years earlier, a similar match might have gotten away from her.
"It was like she was saying, 'hang on, this is my space, I own this, you’re not having it’. That’s hard to do, especially in front of a parochial crowd... that takes both experience and confidence in your ability.
"That match, if you were to isolate one from the summer, was an indicator of somebody who has gone to another level."
