Young Australian wipes out Kerber

AUSTRALIA’S Ashleigh Barty stunned former world No 1 Angelique Kerber in straight sets to reach the WTA Elite Trophy semifinals yesterday.

Barty,21. the youngest player at the season-ending tournament in Zhuhai, China, needed just one hour and 11 minutes to down her German opponent 6-3 6-4 at the Hengqin International Tennis Centre.

It follows an impressive victory over fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Wednesday, also in straight sets.

“I felt I served great today,” Barty said after yesterday’s match.

“I put myself in a good position in my service games to then be super-aggressive and nice and clear when returning so I can, you know, have a little bit more of a crack and then see if I can get some of those early breaks in the sets.”

Barty got off to an impressive start against eighth seed Kerber, securing a break in the sixth game and then firing an ace to win the set.

They exchanged breaks at the beginning of the second set as Kerber fought back, but Barty prevailed, helped by her 11 aces to the German’s two.

The pair’s sole previous meeting was in Brisbane in January when Kerber, then world No 1 and the reigning Australian and US Open champion, survived a big scare from the Australian wildcard entr y.

Later yesterday, Latvian fifth seed Anastasija Sevastova overpowered Czechoslovakia’s Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-4, also giving her a semifinal berth.

Sevastova, on a career-high ranking of world number 15, hammered US Open champ Sloane Stephens on Wednesday.