Australia’s Ashleigh Barty made a winning return to tennis after surmounting the opening-round hurdle at the $50K ITF event in Eastbourne.
The victory marked her comeback to tennis, having switched to represent her country in cricket around 18 months ago.
The 21-year-old Barty, who last participated at the US Open 2014, put up a stellar display of tennis to move past Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, winning 6-3 6-0 in the battle that lasted one hour and 17 minutes.
Moving on, she’s scheduled to cross the swords with Slovak veteran Daniela Hantuchova, who ousted local favorite Laura Robson 3-6 6-3 6-1 in the other first-round encounter of the grass event here.
Barty, primarily a doubles specialist, is best known for being a three-time Grand Slam doubles finalist.
