‘NICE FOR ME TO BE PART OF IT’
With her Indigenous heritage, Barty happy to be part of program
MELBOURNE, Australia
Ash Barty was front and center when the Australian Open celebrated its inaugural First Nations Day.
Albeit not for very long. The top-ranked Barty has Indigenous heritage and her secondround match at Melbourne Park’s main stadium on Tuesday (San Diego time) was among the features of a program dedicated to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.
She was on and off the court quickly, beating 142nd-ranked qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
“Really cool. Nice for me to be a part of it in a way I feel most comfortable,” Barty said. “On a day when we’re bringing culture together it was really nice for me to go out and enjoy that.
“I was really fortunate to be able to play today.”
Barty extended her streak of service holds to 48 games and moved into the third round at Melbourne Park for the sixth consecutive year.
The 2021 Wimbledon and 2019 French Open champion dropped just one game in her first-round match, which also took less than an hour, as she bids to become the first Australian woman since 1978 to win the country’s Grand Slam tournament.
Next up for Barty will be a match against another Italian, 30th-seeded Camila Giorgi. Win that, and Barty could end up in a fourth-round showdown against defending champion Naomi Osaka.
In the day’s opening match on Rod Laver Arena, eighthseeded Paula Badosa had a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan.
Badosa won the title at a Sydney tuneup tournament last week, when she put together back-to-back match wins in Australia for the first time.
In other early second-round results on Day 3, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka beat Jil Teichmann 6-1, 6-2 and and will next face No. 15-seeded Elina Svitolina, who was leading 6-3, 5-7, 5-1 when Harmony Tan retired from their second-round match.
No. 21 Jessica Pegula beat fellow American Bernarda Pera 6-4, 6-4, and Madison Keys had a 6-2, 7-5 win over Jaqueline Adina Cristian.
Svitolina waited on court at Margaret Court Arena until Tan, who had received treatment on her lower left leg after the fifth game of the third set, was removed in a wheelchair.
“It’s always horrible when any athlete gets injured in competition. She played really well and she made it not easy for me,” Svitolina said. “I was a tough match. It’s tough to see a player going out like this.”
With her lower left leg heavily bandaged, the 24-year-old Tan couldn’t even move to the ball as Svitolina held serve. The ailing Frenchwoman reverted to serving underarm, hoping to be able to finish the match rather than retire.
Chair umpire Richard
Haigh called on Tan to stop or risk doing more damage as she appeared to struggle with cramps in her right leg, too.
With her mother signaling from the grandstand for her to quit, Tan left the court in tears after a hug from Svitolina and sustained applause from the crowd.
Late Monday night (San Diego time), Andy Murray beat 21st-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 for his first victory at Melbourne Park since 2017.
He lost a five-setter in the first round in 2019 — a match he, and everyone else, thought might have been his last in Australia — after missing the 2018 edition with an injury. He missed the 2020 tournament with a pelvic injury and last year’s event because of COVID-19.
“It’s been a tough three, four years. Put in a lot of work to get back here,” Murray said in his post-match TV interview at John Cain Arena, which was formerly known as Hisense and is parochially referred to as the People’s Court. “I’ve played on this court many times, the atmosphere is incredible. This is the one where I thought I’d played my last.
“Amazing to be back, winning a five-set battle like that.
Couldn’t ask for more.”
Murray beat Basilashvili in a three-hour three-setter last week in Sydney, where he reached the final of the tuneup tournament. This one went almost four hours.
When the 34-year-old Murray clinched it win on his third match point, he turned to the back of the court, closed his eyes and pumped his fists to celebrate.
Ninth-seeded Felix AugerAliassime fended off Emil Ruusuvuori 6-4, 0-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Maxime Cressy overcame 20 double-faults to upset fellow American and No. 22-seeded John Isner 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-4.
Second-seeded Daniil Medvedev, one of the biggest potential beneficiaries of Djokovic’s deportation, had a much more routine first round ... a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Henri Laaksonen.
Aiming to be the first man in the Open era to win his second major title in the very next Grand Slam appearance after his first such trophy, Medvedev advanced along with No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, No. 5 Andrey Rublev, No. 11 Jannik Sinner, No. 13 Diego Schwartzman and No. 15 Roberto Bautista Agut.