Wimbledon: Ash Barty‘s gentle dig at the English crowd after straight sets win over Katerina Siniakova

Ashleigh Barty has romped into the fourth round of Wimbledon, but she saved some of her best serves for the fickle British crowd.

Ashleigh Barty shakes hands with Katerina Siniakova after their third round meeting. Picture: Getty Images

Ashleigh Barty has romped into the fourth round of Wimbledon with a straight sets demolition of her Czech opponent Katerina Siniakova on centre court early on Sunday morning (AEST). But she saved some of her best serves for the fickle British crowd.

“I am happy to be able to play some good stuff,’’ noted Barty of the 6-3 7-5 result, a major turnaround in form from her stuttering error-riddled match earlier in the week.

“I think it was a hell of a match right from the first point.

“I knew that I had to play very near to my best to be able to compete with her today.”

Barty has now set up a round four match on Monday against Siniakova’s doubles partner, and the current French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, of the Czech Republic.

Immediately after her win, Barty had a dig at the English spectators – many of whom had left the tennis to find a TV to watch the big Euro championship match featuring England, in their first quarterfinal appearance in 25 years – against Ukraine. The stands emptied after the earlier centre court match where Roger Federer survived a four set scare against Brit Cameron Norrie.

Barty was asked about the Australians in the crowd “making all that noise”, to which she replied “it’s better than the English telling me that the football is on, I mean Australia’s not playing”.

She added that the “round ball’’ didn’t interest her when Australia wasn’t playing and she would concentrate on watching “our Aussie rules football”.

Barty hasn’t played Krejcikova before, and she said she is looking forward to the challenge, especially as the world No.17 has been playing “incredible stuff recently”.

Krejcikova said she has known Barty since she was 15 playing juniors and that the Australian motivates and inspires her to work hard. She said she was going to “enjoy” the clash with Barty.

Ashleigh Barty returns against Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova. Picture: AFP

“I just really want to enjoy it, because, all of this that is happening, like I‘m just always telling myself, OK, is it really – am I awake? Like, Is this really happening? I’m just really grateful.”

Barty showed glimpses of her steely nature in the match against Siniakova, firing down three aces in a row at one point, and eliminating the awful double faults that had marred her earlier Wimbledon appearance. Her backhand slice, while not perfect, also showed big improvement, setting her up for a big second week at Wimbledon.