Aussie bashes down door to last eight
Australia’s long wait to see a local woman in its own grand slam quarter-finals is over
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 courtside. It was in vogue for Aussies to be watching. Anna Wintour, too.
It took four match points and almost two-and-a-half hours 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. No Aussie woman has won it in 41 years.
“It’s amazing that it’s happening in Australia,” Barty said, reflecting on her first goal for 2019. “I have given myself the chance to play in front of the best crowd in the world on one of the best courts in the world and in my home slam. There is absolutely nothing better.”
She’ll next play two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who defeated 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.
Another former No 1 and former Australian champion quickly followed Sharapova out when Danielle Collins upset three-time major winner Angelique Kerber 6-0, 6-2.
Collins had never won a match at a grand slam before coming to Australia — now she’s won four straight and eliminated No 14 Julia Goerges, No 19 Caroline Garcia and No 2 Kerber along the way.
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 on 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. In her on-court interview, she saluted her former Brisbane Heat cricket team and said she’d watched on TV the previous day as they qualified for the Women’s BBL final.
“I needed to take that time away,” she said, reflecting on her time out playing cricket. “I feel like I came back a better person on and off the court, a better tennis player.”
Her immediate concern, though, is getting past Kvitova, who beat her in the final of the Sydney International last week.
Frances Tiafoe celebrated his 21st birthday with a spot in his first major quarter-final, beating No 20-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6, (6), 6-7 (1), 7-5. The American took off his shirt, flexed his right bicep and waved to the crowd on Melbourne Arena.
After beating the likes of No 5 Kevin Anderson and Dimitrov, the road ahead gets significantly tougher for Tiafoe. He next plays No 2 seed Rafael Nadal, the 17-time major winner who didn’t let Tomas Berdych on the scoreboard for one-and-a-half sets before finishing off a 6-0, 6-1, 7-6 (4) fourth-round win.
Nadal beat Australians in the first three rounds and then dominated a long-time rival, winning the first nine games before the 2010 Wimbledon finalist finally held serve and held up his left fist in mock celebration.
“When you’re back, you need a little bit of luck in the beginning,” said Nadal, who didn’t play a competitive match between the last US Open and the season-opening major in Australia because of injuries. “I’m in the quarter-finals, let’s see what happens now.”