Ashleigh Barty hopes to tick off another career milestone before setting her sights on the Australian Open.
The world No.1 is gunning for her first WTA title in Australia when she meets power-packed Ukranian Dayana Yastremska in Saturday's Adelaide International final.
Barty has lost her two home-soil finals, at the Sydney International last year and in 2018.
"Hopefully it's third time lucky at home for me," Barty said after scraping past American Danielle Collins 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-5) at Adelaide's Memorial Drive on Friday night.
"All I can do is keep trying to put myself in this position.
"The last two years (in Sydney) I have been close - and agonisingly close last year.
"But the two finals I have lost, I have played great tennis. I lost to quality opponents and tomorrow potentially is no different.
"All I have to do is go out there and try and do the best that I can.
"And if it ends with a title, great. And if it doesn't, it's not really going to change my mood too much going into the rest of the year and particularly the next few weeks."
In last year's Sydney final, Barty lost a nailbiter to Petra Kvitova 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3); a year after being pipped by Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4.
And Barty was under no illusions about the magnitude of the challenge presented by world No.24 Yastremska, who has marched to the decider without dropping a set in Adelaide.
"Dayana is an exceptional ball-striker," Barty said.
"She wants to be inside the court, she craves that court position, and thrives when she's ahead so it's about me trying to keep as much scoreboard pressure as I can.
"And I think it's still sticking to the way I want to play.
"It doesn't really change too much for who my opponent is, it's about me trying to bring the game style back to the Ash Barty brand that I want to play."
Australian Associated Press
