Australia hopes for Barty party in France

Ashleigh Barty sent Australia into a frenzy with her maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Melbourne Park in January so the sports-mad nation will be eager to see how she progresses at the French Open next week.

With confidence oozing from every pore, the 23-year-old Queenslander has enjoyed the best season start in her career and claimed her maiden WTA Premier event in Miami to become her country's first top 10 player since Sam Stosur in 2013.

Her preparations have been hampered by a flare-up of a long-time arm injury, causing her to pull out of the Strasbourg event.

But as the eighth seed in Paris, she has her best chance of going deep at a tournament that has mostly proved confounding for her.

Barty joked last year that every week that passes during the clay court season brings her a week closer to the relative comforts of grass, and getting fired up to get her "socks dirty" in the red dust has been a battle of will.

Despite that, she made an encouraging run to the quarter-finals at Madrid this month before being bounced in straight sets by the wily French Open champion Simona Halep.

Australia have not had a Grand Slam champion, male or female, since Stosur upset Serena Williams in the 2011 U.S. Open final, and the stocky, terrier-like Barty is probably the country's best hope of ending the fallow period, notwithstanding the tempestuous talent of Nick Kyrgios in the men's draw.

Unlike Kyrgios, the 5ft-5in (1.65m) Barty is universally admired for her grit, grace and work ethic. Her commitment to improve has been seen in the gradual transformation of her serve from a weakness to one of the best on tour.