Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie stars Ash Barty and John Peers stay alive in mixed doubles event

Ash Barty’s frustrating Olympics campaign may yet have a silver lining (or gold!!!). The Wimbledon champion and John Peers are looking good in the mixed doubles.

Ash Barty has one last chance to leave Tokyo with a medal as a memento – the mixed doubles.

She backed up her gutting quarter-final doubles defeat to put on a clinic alongside John Peers, with the pair demolishing Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and Nadia Podoroska 6-1 7-6 (7-3).

The Australians have combined before in mixed doubles, but not since her brief stint away from the sport.

Barty and Storm Sanders lost their doubles encounter.

“Our families are super close. I lived with the Peers family when I came back into the sport in 2016,” Barty told News Corp.

“So for Johnny and I this is a really special moment to make Momma Peers proud and we’ll go out there and leave everything on the line.”

The win comes just hours after the Wimbledon champion suffered double Tokyo heartbreak.

Days after her singles campaign ended in the first round, Barty and doubles partner Storm Sanders had the semi-finals in their sights – only to go down in a brutal super tiebreaker defeat to the top-seeded Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.

Australia took the first set 6-3 and had chances to pull ahead in the second, only for Barty to be broken at 4-5 to send the match to a super tiebreaker.

From there the Czech pair took the ascendancy and claimed two crucial points on Barty’s serve to take a 7-4 lead, which they’d ride all the way to the semi-finals.

The 3-6 6-4 (10-7) victory sets up clash with Russian pair Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina on Thursday for a shot at the gold medal match.

Barty and Sanders lamented the loss, but admitted the world’s No.1 doubles pairing switched gears in the second set to take the match away from the Australians.

“You never quite have their measure,” Barty said.

“It’s disappointing but there’s only a couple of points in that match, here and there, and it’s a different result.

“We did everything right today but just weren’t able to win those big points when it mattered most.”

Added Sanders: “honestly they lifted for the second set and we always knew that was going to happen. They’re grand slam champions and the No.1 team in the world. We always knew it was going to be hard work, and you know what, we put ourselves in a good position and couldn’t quite get it done today.”

Barty will back up for the mixed doubles with John Peers later on Wednesday.

Barty’s devastating singles loss

Ash Barty has been left searching for answers following a mind-blowing first-round meltdown that destroyed her Olympic dream.

Barty looked off the pace from the opening point and racked up a mighty 55 unforced errors in her straight sets defeat to Spanish world No. 48 Sara Sorribes Tormo that killed off her hopes of following in the footsteps of Fed Cup coach Alicia Molik by medalling at an Olympics.

And if Barty looked rattled on the court during the 6-4 6-3 boilover, she was no more composed once she exited her sanctuary.

So shocked and crushed by the first round defeat, Barty skipped her post-match media commitments after agreeing to one interview with host broadcaster Channel 7.

“It was a tough day. A disappointing day. I can’t lie about that,” she told the broadcaster.

“I can’t hide behind that fact that I wanted to do really well here. Today wasn’t my day.

“I get to look forward to playing doubles with Storm and getting in and enjoying the Olympic

experience.

“Just loose. I knew I wanted to try to take the match on it would be a fine line of not pushing too hard and not getting in the patterns I didn’t want to get stuck in.

“Too erratic. It’s brutal. Like an Australian summer. I enjoy the heat and love playing out here in these conditions. Wasn’t meant to be.”

Ash Barty, always the legend. Great human first, fierce competitor second. The win/loss doesn’t shake her character. Will line up again & keep creating her amazing story. #Tokyo2020

— Kurt Fearnley (@kurtfearnley) July 25, 2021

Ashleigh Barty during her doubles win. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty

There were many questions to be asked of Barty in dissecting the stunning upset – not least of all, what just happened?

Was it the heat? The pressure? The shorter preparation following her triumphant Wimbledon campaign?

Barty had an off-kilter lead-up for this tournament as a whole, splitting herself from the rest of the Olympic team by opting to stay outside of the Village and ‘doing her own thing’ with regards to her training.

She also declined pre-Olympics media requests, not wanting to unsettle her preparations.

It’s a strategy that has delivered two grand slam titles, so it’s hard to find too many holes in that approach but Barty definitely looked off-pace on Sunday.

Barty was broken in two of her first three service games to trail 4-1 inside half an hour – and to that point, the Australian star had spent as much time hitting her leg in frustration as she had hitting winners.

Ash Barty during the straight sets loss. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty

She improved, and managed to earn breaks in each set, but squandered seven further break point opportunities when she had Sorribes Tormo seemingly faltering – including when leading 3-2 in the second set.

“The best lesson is you have to be there for every point, every single ball,” said Sorribes Tormo, who showed no quit in a match that clearly meant the world to her.

“Try to do the best you can, do the things you already spoke with your coach about and try to keep improving, keep playing your game, accept everything, and give your best.

“It’s an amazing feeling. I still can’t believe it. It’s something incredible for me.

“It’s something I’ve been dreaming (about) all my life, being here and, even more, beating a No.1. I’m super, super happy.”

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The heat may well have been a factor, even for a Queenslander like Barty is these were extremely challenging conditions – with the Tokyo temperature hitting the mid-30s.

Once they passed 30.1 degrees, the International Tennis Federation enacted its Extreme Weather Policy – with temperatures then pushing closer towards the threshold required to suspend matches.

Later, Ajla Tomljanovic ensured there was at least one Aussie woman through to the second round when Yaroslava Shvedova retired from their showdown while down 7-5 3-2.

In the men’s event, James Duckworth joined John Millman in the second round following a gutsy three-set victory over Slovakia’s Lukas Klein.

Coming back from losing the first set, Duckworth triumphed 5-7 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to advance, where he will face either 12th seed Karen Khachanov or local hope Yoshihito Nishioka.

Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Aussie stars Ash Barty and John Peers stay alive in mixed doubles event