World No.1 Ash Barty is through to the quarter-finals of the Adelaide International after surviving a huge scare during her opening match on Tuesday.
Barty, who fell at the first hurdle in Brisbane last week, battled back from a set down to edge out Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. The roller coaster encounter saw the Australian struggle on the court at times as she blew a double break advantage in the third set whilst leading 5-2.
“I was able to play my style and control a bit more in the third set,” the top seed told reporters.
“But she hung around and got more aggressive. I was happy to come through and get the chance to play another match here.
“It was a very close one – but all of ours are. She controlled the match with me trying to do the best I could.”
It was far from a perfect display from the Australian, who endured a mixed performance with her serve. Besides producing 11 aces during the match, she also hit six double faults and only managed to win 41% (14/34) of her second service points.
Despite her mixed fortunes on the court, Barty is drawing positives from her ability to fight back against the world No.31 in what was their first meeting since 2018. The 23-year-old is aiming to tune up her game ahead of next week’s Australian Open. She is bidding to become the first home player to win a singles title there since 1978.
“It’s something I try and pride myself on is that no matter what the score is, I try and hang around for the whole match every time,” Barty said.
“Last year we did it really well, had a really good record of when I’d lost the first set, of coming back and trying to win those matches. Today was no different.
“I felt like I was doing the right things. I just needed to hang in there and wait for an opportunity to come and then try and grab it. Yeah, pretty happy to be able to turn that one around.”
Barty, who received some advice from Roger Federer on Monday, will have to wait and see who she plays next. It will be either eighth seed Markéta Vondroušová or Arina Rodionova, who stunned Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Playing her first match since Wimbledon due to a wrist injury, Vondroušová dropped only three games during her 6-3, 6-0, win over Germany’s Tatjana Maria.
