Barty time as Aussie makes Open semis

There’s a Barty going on Down Under. It’s already bigger than the Barty party that took over Melbourne Park last year.

That ended with Ash Barty’s loss to Petra Kvitova in the Australian Open quarterfinals. This one picked up with Barty’s 7-6 (6), 6-2 quarterfinal win over the two-time Wimbledon champion.

The 23-year-old Barty, who clinched her first major title at the French Open and won the season-ending WTA Finals last year, is the first Aussie into the Australian Open women’s semifinals since Wendy Turnbull in 1984. No Australian has won a singles title at the national championship since 1978, when Chris O Neil took the women’s title . ...

Tennis greats John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova have caused a stir with a protest demanding a name change for Margaret Court Arena, one of the main show courts at the Australian Open.

Navratilova climbed up the umpire’s chair and started to address spectators at the arena using the court microphone, but organizers cut off the live feed. Navratilova and McEnroe then unfurled a banner reading “Evonne Goolagong Arena.”

Navratilova has frequently objected to Court having the stadium named after her because of her anti-gay comments, and wants it to be named after Goolagong, the Australian seven-time Grand Slam singles champion . ...

It’s a big number of match points, but not crazy in Tennys’ terms. Seven times the 100th-ranked Tennys Sangren was a point away from victory over 20-time major winner Roger Federer, and from a career-best appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal.

After losing to Federer in five sets, Sandgren said he was tired mentally, he was tired physically and he was just plain tired. But there were lot of positives he could take out of his second run to the quarterfinals in Australia in three years.