BARTY JOINS TOP 10 PARTY
TENNIS: Ashleigh Barty has celebrated her entry to the world’s top 10 with a hoodoo-busting triumph over Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals at the Miami Open.
Barty overcame a two-hour rain delay to down Kvitova 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-2 and notch her first win over the two-time Wimbledon champion in five meetings.
In reversing her Australian Open quarter-final loss to the Czech, Barty sealed her place in the world’s top 10 for the first time.
The 22-year-old joins fellow Queenslander Samantha Stosur as only the second Australian in the past decade to reach such lofty heights in the rankings. Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik are the only other Australians in the past 15 years to crack the top 10.
Barty’s breakthrough win also scuppered world No.2 Kvitova’s hopes of claiming the No.1 ranking for the first time. The 29-year-old needed to lift the trophy to usurp Naomi Osaka.
“Petra’s someone I respect most on tour. She’s an absolute champion,” Barty said. “It’s always a real pleasure to play her. I had to try to take her serve away from her as much as possible. I thought we did that really well today. I’m really pleased.”
Barty will face Anett Kontaveit in the semi-finals after the Estonian brought Hsieh Su-wei’s giantkilling run to a dramatic end with a thrilling comeback win over the Taiwanese.
The 33-year-old Hsieh, having taken out Osaka and 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki, looked poised to add the 21st seed to her list by racing to a 4-0 lead in the third set. But Kontaveit, 10 years her junior, took a page from the Taiwanese player’s own playbook and dug in to prevail 3-6 6-2 7-5.
“She’s having a hell of a week,” Kontaveit said. “She’s playing some great tennis. We haven’t played each other for a long time.”