American upsets Kerber, while Aussies party for Barty
MELBOURNE, Australia — Threetime major champion Angelique Kerber was stunned 6-0, 6-2 by Danielle Collins of the U.S. in just 56 minutes in the Australian Open’s fourth round early today.
Collins had an 0-5 career record in Grand Slam tournaments until this one. But she has now added an upset of No. 2 Kerber to earlier victories over a pair of seeded women, No. 14 Julia Goerges and No. 19 Caroline Garcia.
Collins was the more aggressive player throughout and finished with a resounding 29-6 edge in winners.
The former University of Virginia player will face 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova next.
Earlier it was like a party at Rod Laver Arena. A partisan crowd backed Ash Barty, booed Maria Sharapova and celebrated wildly when the first Australian woman in a decade reached the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park.
Rod Laver was there watching, among the tennis greats. Prime Minister Scott Morrison in his green Aussie cap was cheering from the side of the court. It was in vogue for Aussies to be watching.
It took four match points and two hours, 22 minutes before Barty fended off 2008 champion Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, reaching the quarter-finals of a major for the first time. She’s the first Australian woman since Jelena Dokic to reach the last eight at the home Grand Slam tournament. No Aussie woman has won it in 41 years.
She’ll next play two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who dismantled 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 6-1 in 59 minutes to return to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time in seven years.
Sharapova won the first set but was struggling with her serve, and finished with 10 double-faults in the match.
After dropping the second set — midway through Barty’s nine-game winning streak — Sharapova took an extended break in the locker-room and was booed when she came back to court. That’s a rarity for the fivetime Grand Slam winner in these parts.
A comeback was always in the cards, and Sharapova nearly delivered — recovering from 4-0 down in the deciding set, forcing Barty to serve it out, and saving three match points when she did.
Two seasons back from her break to pursue a career in cricket, Barty has become Australia’s best chance of producing a local champion since 1978.
Her immediate concern, though, is getting past Kvitova, who beat her in the final of the Sydney International last week.
Kvitova wanted no part of another loss to Anisimova, who beat her last year at Indian Wells and was the youngest American since Jennifer Capriati in 1993 to make it this far at Melbourne Park.
So she went on the attack early, breaking in the first game. Kvitova was the model of consistency that the two other seeded players previously vanquished by Anisimova — No. 24 Lesia Tsurenko and No. 11 Aryna Sabalenka — were not.
She’s now on a nine-match winning streak. Her four wins here come after a title run in Sydney, and is in the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2012.
“When I’m counting the years, it’s pretty long,” Kvitova said. “But, you know, sometimes the waiting time is worth for it. I’m not complaining at all.”