Izuchukwu Okosi
World number one in women’s top-flight tennis, Ashleigh Barty Saturday defeated Danielle Collins to win the Women’s Australian Open title, ending Australia’s 44-year wait for a Grand Slam women’s singles champion.
Home girl, Barty fought back from 5-1 down in the second set to win 6-3 7-6 (7-2) on a jubilant Rod Laver Arena.
The 25-year-old attained the feat without dropping a set in Melbourne.
Barty won her first Grand Slam title on clay at Roland Garros in 2019 and followed it up on grass at Wimbledon last year; Now she has become the first Australian woman since Chris O’Neil in 1978 to have won the singles title in Australia.
She also becomes the only active player other than Serena Williams to have won major titles on three different surfaces.
With a partisan 12,000 crowd and nation watching on, Barty started and ended the final looking unburdened by the weight of expectation.
Among those watching was Chris O’Neil, the last Australian to win the men’s or women’s singles title in Melbourne.
Barty now just needs the US Open to complete a career Grand Slam having won the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last summer.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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