Australian Open 2022: Ash Barty wins Women’s singles quarter final against Jessica Pegula

Ash Barty has advanced to the semi-finals of her home slam in blistering pace. But what is it like to be on the other side of the next for one of her clinics?

Ash Barty beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets to progress to the semi-finals. Picture: Michael Klein.

She planned to make Jessica Pegula feel “uncomfortable”, but instead Ashleigh Barty reduced her opponent to a “helpless victim” in a brutal demolition to storm into the Australian Open semi-finals.

The one-sided beatdown matched Barty’s best result at Melbourne Park, pitting her against another American – the unseeded Madison Keys – for a spot in Saturdays final, after Keys upset Barbora Krecjikova.

That result actually confirmed Barty’s status as the world No.1, but if there was any flickering doubt about who the best player in the world is it has been forcibly removed over the course of 16 blistering sets in the past nine days.

This is Ash’s world – and everyone else is just along for the ride.

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Ash Barty beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets to progress to the semi-finals. Picture: Michael Klein.

American 21st seed Pegula experienced that first hand as she was steamrolled in straight sets and just 63 minutes on Tuesday night,

“We’ve seen her do that to a lot of people. Unfortunately I was a victim tonight to that,” Pegula said.

“When she gets into a rhythm, she can kind of run away. Her game just kind of picks you apart a little bit, and it can be really frustrating.

“There’s really not much you can do. It doesn’t feel good. It feels kind of helpless.”

The last Australian woman to reach an Australian Open final, was Wendy Turnbull in 1980, a drought Barty can scratch off on Thursday – before fixating on the 44-year wait for a local singles champion she’s got firmly in her sights.

From the opening game, Barty established her dominance to fight back from 40-0 down and break Pegula – signalling that the wheels were already coming off the American’s quarter-final, pinned to her baseline as Barty sliced her to pieces.

Despite her best efforts, Pegula just couldn’t hold back the Ash Barty onslaught. Picture: Getty Images.

The Australian ace has lost one service game all tournament – to hand her a break in the opening game of the match is to all but concede the first set, as proved to be the case.

Barty repeated the trick in the second set, securing the break after a long deuce: at 6-2, 1-0 it was effectively game, set and match inside 44 minutes.

Soon, following breaks in the third and fifth games, the scoreboard caught up on what everyone in the crowd had known for more than a minute or two: Barty was triumphant 6-2 6-0.

“Jess made me work very hard and I think the scoreline definitely wasn’t an indication of how the match felt,” Barty said.

“I knew I had to play my very best tennis tonight to match up with Jess and put her under the pump.

“I was just trying to be assertive and be aggressive when I could and run and use the chisel and kind of defend when I had to.”

Originally published as Australian Open 2022: Ash Barty wins Women’s singles quarter final against Jessica Pegula