Australian Open: Ash Barty books date with year’s most successful player
Ash Barty’s next opponent, Elena Rybakina, will be making her third round Grand Slam debut, but the Kazakh’s formidable 2020 record hasn’t gone unnoticed. AUSSIE WOMEN’S WRAP.
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Ash Barty is on Australian Open high alert with the Queenslander’s path to Melbourne Park’s second week threatened by Kazakh Elena Rybakina – the most successful player on the women’s circuit this season.
Prolific Rybakina has won 11 of 12 matches in 2020, lifting the Hobart International title after losing the Shenzhen final to stamp herself as a legitimate threat.
The towering baseliner is now into third round of a major for the first time after eliminating Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen, but Barty doesn’t believe inexperience will hamper the 20-year-old on Friday.
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“It may be a first (grand slam third round) ... but they’ll be ready, they’ll learn from it, they’ll enjoy it, experience it, everything that you need to do to kind of be out there,” Barty said.
“I think for me it’s about doing what I do best regardless of whether it’s a first round, third round, or a final.
“It doesn’t really matter for me what round it is. I’m still going out there trying to do the same thing, essentially.”
Barty will strictly adhere to routine as the world No.1 attempts to build on a confidence-boosting 6-1 6-4 success over Slovenian Polona Hercog.
The French Open champion will dissect both her own second-round win and Rybakina’s strengths and weakness as she continues crank up her levels.
“I think you feel more comfortable every day,” she said.
“Every time you’re able to win a match, you have another opportunity to try and be that little bit better, to try to be that little bit more sharp and clean.
“I felt like I started a lot better today, and then the second set, as well, was able to get out of some sticky service games towards the end of the set there.
“It’s just more opportunities. It’s more experience, more learning, more everything from every time that I’m kind of thrown into a new situation.”
Barty landed 16 winners to Hercog’s 12, but was much cleaner off the ground with only 16 unforced errors to Hercog’s 30.
Pressured by strapping Hercog’s blistering power, Barty faced six break points against three successive service games – a trend she’s anxious to avoid.
“I think all three of those games were 15-40, which is not really an opportunity I want to give to my opponent, three back-to-back service games, I think it was,” she said.
“Yeah, obviously nice to be able to get out of those.
“In those points, my structure of points was a lot better.
“I probably should have done those earlier in the service games.
“But that was also something I did very well in the first set was get ahead in my own service games and then put the pressure straight back on my opponent.”
AUSSIE ASTRA FALLS AT FIRST HURDLE
Australian wildcard Astra Sharma’s 2020 Australian Open campaign is over.
The 24-year-old was bundled out in straight sets in her delayed first-round clash against Estonian No. 28 seed Anett Kontaveit 6-0 6-2.
It took Kontaveit just 19 minutes to wrap up the first set against the Australian, competing at her second home Grand Slam.
Sharma, who has a world ranking of 111, showed a bit more fight in the second set after being bageled, but her 28-16 unforced error count proved costly.
After the suspension of matches due to rain on day one, the pair had to wait until day three to take to the court for their first round clash.
Sharma progressed to the second round at the Australian Open last year and was a first-round loser at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Kontaveit reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2018 and has also reached the fourth round at the French and US Opens.
Originally published as Australian Open: Ash Barty books date with year’s most successful player