World number one Ash Barty cruised past Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 16 at the Miami Open.
Even though it wasn’t her best serving day, Barty won 29 of her 40 points on her first serve as she sliced through an error-prone Ostapenko to reach the third round in Miami.
The defending champion is now into the fourth round where she will play the winner of Angelique Kerber and Victoria Azarenka.
It was a tough start for Barty as Ostapenko came out aggressively and took the match to the Austrlian.
Despite some of her aggressive patterns of play, Ostapenko couldn’t take her chances as she wasted three break points in the opening game.
The Latvian was punished for her missed opportunities as she was broken straight after as Barty put on a slicing clinic.
After taking a 3-0 lead it was all fairly comfortable for the defending champion as she hit 82% of her shots through slices rather than topspin.
Ostapenko was unable to get any consistency off her shots as Barty’s defence prevailed and after a long ninth game, converted set point number six to take the opening set in 35 minutes.
There was a much better start to the second set for Ostapenko as she was able to take more risks and take advantage of Barty’s lack of concentration as she broke for a 2-0 lead.
However it all went south for Ostapenko very quickly as it was soon evident why she was outside the world’s top 50.
Double faults and unforced errors were all flowing from her racket as Barty stepped into higher gears.
Slicing and dicing her way to victory, Barty produced six games in a row to easily move into the fourth round of the Miami Open.
Her form starting to pick up and an increase in confidence is a dangerous sign for the rest of the field heading into the rest of the tournament.
After the match, Barty put her win down to a perfect game-plan, “The goal today was to bring the game back to my kind of tempo as often and as quickly as possible,” the Australian said.
“She has the ability to take that away from you on the serve and first shot on return. So it was about being patient at times and doing my best to neutralise it and bring the game back in my favour.”
Next for Barty will be either Angelique Kerber or Victoria Azarenka as she looks to keep her world number one spot at the end of the Miami Open.
In other results, Ana Konjuh’s dream run in the Miami Open continued after knocking out Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek 6-4 2-6 6-2 to set up a fourth round clash against Anastasija Sevastova.
The Croatian won 71% of first service points as she stunned Swiatek to seal her place in the last 16.
