Updated
Ashleigh Barty has made the quarter-finals of a major for the first time in her promising career after coming from a set down to beat former champion Maria Sharapova in a gripping encounter at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Key points:
- Ashleigh Barty is the first Australian in the women’s quarter-finals since 2009
- She will play Petra Kvitova in the last eight
- Sharapova was booed by the Rod Laver Arena crowd after taking a lengthy bathroom break
Barty, who went into the match under an injury cloud due to an abdominal strain, dropped the first set but fought back in convincing fashion to defeat the 2008 winner Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena.
She had four match points before sealing victory and becomes the first Australian through to the last eight of the women’s draw since Jelena Dokic’s run at Melbourne Park 10 years ago.
The match had the potential to spill over into controversy when Sharapova took a seven-minute bathroom break after the second set, which drew a chorus of boos from the crowd once she returned to the court.
If it was designed to put Barty off her game it did not work, as Barty broke the five-time major winner immediately and then added a second service break.
Sharapova grabbed a break back and almost another when Barty was serving at 4-3, but the Queenslander held and then pushed through to claim the three-set triumph in two hours and 22 minutes.
Barty’s previous best finish at a major was an appearance in the fourth round at last year’s US Open.
Her charge into the quarter-finals continues the remarkable comeback she has made to tennis after taking an indefinite break from the game, which included a stint playing cricket in the WBBL with Brisbane Heat.
“The atmosphere was really unbelievable, it really was,” Barty said.
“That first match point, my ears were ringing. I think I missed a couple of serves by a few millimetres and went for the wrong serve on a second serve on match point.
“But really happy to close it out in the end and the crowd were unbelievable.
“I have never quite played in Rod Laver when it’s been that full, I think, especially against a champion like Maria, who has proven it time and time again that she can come back from any deficit.
“She’s proven herself on the biggest stages. It’s pleasing.”
Barty, the world number 15, will play Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals on Tuesday, an opponent she met in the final of the Sydney International last weekend.
The 22-year-old had every right to back her chances against former world number one Sharapova, now ranked 30 in the world, as she has shown she belongs on court with the elite of the women’s game.
In the build-up to the Open she chalked up a win over world number one Simona Halep on her way to the Sydney final, where she took the first set off Kvitova before losing in tiebreaker in the third.
Her growing maturity was brilliantly illustrated in the third set when she ignored Sharapova’s absence from the court, a delay that could have thrown a less-focused player.
Barty matches Sharapova’s power game
With Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Rod Laver among the crowd, Barty had earlier levelled the match by racing through the second set in 32 minutes.
She broke Sharapova’s serve twice and importantly she curbed her unforced errors, conceding only seven as opposed to the 22 she tallied in the first set.
Games had been on serve in the first set when Barty had a chance to break Sharapova in the eighth game, but the Russian found her composure to level at 4-4.
It proved to be a missed opportunity for Barty at that stage and she was broken in the next game before Sharapova served out the set, icing it with an ace.
Kvitova made the quarter-finals when she ended the run of American phenom Amanda Anisimova, aged just 17, winning 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour on Rod Laver Arena.
The Czech can hardly be described as a dark horse to win the title in Melbourne, considering she knows what is required in the second week of a major, having won Wimbledon twice.
But she has been quietly going about her business and is yet to drop a set.
There was a stunning upset in one of the other women’s fourth-round matches, with world number two Angelique Kerber thrashed by the 35th-ranked American Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-2.
Collins needed just 56 minutes to defeat Kerber, who has won three majors, including the 2016 Australian Open.
Topics:
First posted
from News Viral Story http://bit.ly/2SZpw8V
0 Comments