Ash Barty and Kiki Bertens to play Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh in Brisbane doubles final
Ash Barty was the main drawcard at the Brisbane International only to be knocked out of the tournament in her first match. But now she has the opportunity to salvage something from the event.
Tennis
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World No.1 singles player Ashleigh Barty will have one last chance to salvage something out of a bitterly disappointing Brisbane International campaign – but it won’t be easy.
Barty and her Dutch playing partner Kiki Bertens will have their work cut out for them after the world’s top pairing of Czech Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh from Chinese Taipei won the right to oppose them in the doubles final on Sunday.
The reigning Wimbledon champions, Strycova and Hseih overcame an early scare to defeat Lyudmyla Kichenok and Zhaoxuan Yang 7-6(3), 6-3 in Saturday’s semi-final.
Ukrainian Kichenok, who has won three WTA doubles events with her twin sister Nadiia, was brilliant at the net as she and Yang, from China, broke the top seeds early in the first set, before Strycova and Hseih broke back at 4-5 to go on and force the tie-break.
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From then on the result was never in doubt and Barty and Bertens will have to be at their best if they are to take the title.
A major disadvantage could be Barty’s lack of on-court conditioning after a week of disrupted preparation and unhelpful results.
The No.1 seed and main tournament drawcard has been the most obvious casualty of a scheduling shemozzle that has earned criticism from players, media and spectators.
With the men’s ATP Cup team event overlapping with the Brisbane International for the first three days of the tournament, the women were shunted onto a small outside court while the men had exclusive use of the 5500-seat Pat Rafter Arena.
In order to maximise Barty’s box-office appeal she was kept out of the draw until the morning of day four when she could play on the main arena but the move backfired.
Barty is known to have been secretly concerned about her lack of game practice leading into her first match – a round two showdown with world number 53 Jennifer Brady – and her fears proved well founded.
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Up against a confident, competition-hardened, up-and-comer who had played three qualifying matches and beaten five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova in the first round, she lost in straight sets.
Her doubles preparation has been almost as bad. She and Bertens have played just played two matches together as a team – a total of five sets on the back court in front of small crowds – before their semi-final against Ajla Tomljanovic and Kristina Mladenovic was a walkover.
They face an experience combination which has teamed up for 39 wins from 49 matches including five tournament titles.
The only thing in their favour will be the support of a large and vocal parochial crowd, many of whom bought their tickets early in the hope of seeing Barty in the singles final.
Originally published as Ash Barty and Kiki Bertens to play Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh in Brisbane doubles final