Australian Open: Home favourite Ashleigh Barty faces Danielle Collins in final

Ashleigh Barty will bid to become the first home Australian Open singles champion for 44 years when she takes on Danielle Collins in Saturday's final.

Christine O'Neil was the last Australian of either gender to win the singles tournament in 1978.

World number one Barty has been in ominous form, having not dropped a set on her way to the final.

American Collins is competing in her first Grand Slam final less than a year after having surgery for endometriosis.

Barty won her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2019 French Open and went on to win Wimbledon last year.

She has lost just 21 games on her way to the Melbourne Park final and enters it on a 10-match unbeaten streak.

Barty leads the head-to-head 3-1 over Collins, but Collins won their last meeting in Adelaide in 2021.

Crowd capacity has been increased to 80% for the final after the Victorian government accepted a request by Tennis Australia.

Barty embraces home hopes

Barty previously reached the women's doubles final at the Australian Open when she partnered Casey Dellacqua as a 16-year-old in 2013.

She took a break from tennis a year later, reflecting afterwards that her rise was "too much too quickly for me", and played some cricket in the women's Big Bash League before returning in 2016.

A few months later, she reached the third round of the 2017 Australian Open. Since then she has won 14 career titles to go with her two Grand Slams and has been top of the world rankings for 112 weeks.

She has received raucous support from the crowds at Melbourne Park but the expectations of her home country have not daunted her as she eased to the final.

Barty has admitted she does not pay attention to social media while competing, describing herself as like a hermit, and she has cut a relaxed figure, including playing cricket with her team in the players' area.

"Australians are hungry for sport. They love it. They're addicted to it," Barty said of Australia's relationship with tennis.

"I think at this time of the year it always floats around with tennis that they're looking for an Australian player in particular to have a really good run."

Collins may be the underdog but she has been in strong form, demolishing seventh seed Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals to ensure she will break into the top 10 next week.

Known for her feisty on-court demeanour and aggressive hitting, Collins broke through at the 2019 Australian Open, where she reached the semi-finals.

She backed that up with a quarter-final run at the French Open a year later but began to struggle physically and mentally with the impact of endometriosis, a condition where cells like the ones in the lining of the womb grow elsewhere in the body.

Collins stepped away from the tour to undergo surgery, and had a tennis ball-sized cyst removed, before returning at Roland Garros last year and subsequently won two WTA titles.

Asked about her opponent Barty, Collins said: "Something I really admire about Ash's game is her variety, playing a different game style than pretty much all of the players on tour.

"I think when I go out against her we're going to have another battle hopefully and put on a good show for everyone."