Chris O'Neil relinquishes piece of Australian tennis history as Ash Barty wins 2022 Australian Open

Port Macquarie's Christine O'Neil was previously the last woman to lift the trophy in 1978 when she defeated American Betsy Nagelsen in the tournament final at Kooyong.

So it seemed fitting O'Neil was in the front rows of Rod Laver Arena when Barty replaced her in the history books with a 6-3 7-6 win over American Danielle Collins.

As the dust settles, there's a few similarities that have arisen between the two Aussies and their Grand Slam success.

"The interesting, spooky bit is we both beat Americans in the final and we had exactly the same scoreline. Mine was 6-3 7-6 as was Ash's," O'Neil said.

"I was with a bunch of friends the night before and we were all having a guess at the score, then one of my friends said 'what was your score' and I said '6-3 7-6' so she said 'I'll take that'.

"Then we Googled it and Ash's tiebreak was 7-2 as well so it might have even been spot-on with the tie-break."

O'Neil said she was more than happy to hand the title over, even if it meant part of her place in history had been taken.

"I might have to be who was the second-last (Australian women's) winner of the Australian Open? That'll be even harder," she said.

"I'm very happy and very proud of winning it and very fortunate to have held onto it for that long, but also very happy to have handed it over to Ash.

"You couldn't give it to a better person."

Even when the 25-year-old Queenslander trailed 5-1 in the second set, O'Neil was confident Barty would still get the job done.

She did, however, admit it was likely to have been done in three sets.

"Danielle went on a roll for a while, Ash made a few more mistakes, but at 5-1 I thought that set was gone for her, but she stayed composed," O'Neil said.

"You could see her confidence build from 5-4 until the end of the match and she's a superstar. At 5-1 it's not looking terrific, but you can only play one point at a time and one game at a time and they all add up.

"It culminated in it going Ash's way."

And as for the Chop 'N' Chill facemask that received some air-time on the Channel Nine coverage?

"I do a bit of work at Chop 'N' Chill sometimes where I used to work for them as a casual and they're fantastic people and I love them," O'Neil said.

"When I saw them last week (owner) Jacqui (Cudmore) was joking around and said 'here's a facemask, maybe wear it' so I thought why not.

"I quite like them. They're better than the hospital ones."

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