Tired Barty able to rise to the occasion
NO matches for 11 months and then two inside 24 hours was clearly a shock to the system for world No. 1 Ash Barty.
After breezing through her comeback match on Tuesday night, the Australian Open favourite was back on Margaret Court Arena yesterday against world No. 52 Marie Bouzkova.
And initially it was much of the same, with Barty racing through the first set without losing a game.
However, midway through the second set the match changed complexion and it took the 2019 French Open champion all of her patience and skill to overwhelm a determined Bouzkova 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in just over two hours.
Barty, 24, admitted she was still getting back into tournament mode.
“It is obviously a little bit different and I have to get used to going to bed late again,” she said.
“I’m an early riser, didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
Barty, who took an extended break last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, felt she “pressed a bit” in the second set and lost her execution, which sent the match into an intriguing third set. so
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The pair traded breaks of serve and Barty looked in trouble at 3-all and with a break-point on her serve, but dug deep to save it and then accelerated to the finish line.
A booming ace set up a match point, with another big serve closing it and ensuring she progressed to the quarterfinals of the Yarra Valley Classic, where her opponent is American Shelby Rogers.
Meanwhile, South Australian Alex Bolt is no stranger to scaring the life out of bigger names and he now has former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in his sights.
South Australian Bolt, who has a wildcard into next week’s Open, took last year’s finalist Dominic Thiem to five sets in the second round.
He set up a shot at Wawrinka in the third round of Murray River Open after a tough three-set win -–6-4, 6-7 (9-7), 7-5 – over American Mackenzie McDonald.
“Stan, he’s a great of the game. He’s won slams, he’s one of the best players in the world right now,” Bolt said of Switzerland’s three-time Grand Slam winner.
“I’m just looking forward to the opportunity to be able to play again.”
It was a good day for the Aussie contingent, with Jordan Thompson impressing in his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert. James Duckworth upset seventh seed Ugo Humbert with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 win, while Alexei Popyrin was too strong for American Tommy Paul, 6-4, 6-3.
He has now set up a potential third-round showdown with Bulgarian second seed Grigor Dimitrov.
“I played really solid from all aspects of my game,” Popyrin said.
It wasn’t all good news, with Jason Kubler falling 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 to Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, while Aleksandar Vukic was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Italian Jannik Sinner.