Ash Barty has showcased her fighting qualities on an extraordinary day of pre-Australian Open tennis at Melbourne Park. After a near year-long hiatus, Australia’s world No 1 advanced to the quarter-finals in her first tournament back with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory over dogged Czech Marie Bouzkova.
Barty’s gritty win sent a reminder to her rivals on the eve of Thursday night’s Open draw and on a day of unprecedented women’s talent on display. The world’s top six female players, as well as 23-times grand slam winner Serena Williams, former Open champions Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber and French Open titleholder Iga Swiatek were all on show.
Never before, not even at the Open, have fans been treated to so much class on the one day, with grand slam draws splitting the world’s elite stars into two halves of the draw.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has forced officials into a complete re-think, with six tournaments running concurrently at Melbourne Park to allow competitors as much court time as possible before Monday’s start to the Open. It is proving a smorgasbord for viewers and providing a glimpse of what is to come over the next three weeks.
All up, 19 Australians were in action on Wednesday: 13 men in the two ATP tournaments, plus Barty and Ellen Perez and Alex de Minaur, John Millman, Luke Saville and John Peers in the ATP Cup.
But all eyes were on Barty as the world No 1 continued her comeback after not being sighted on tour since a semi-final loss to Petra Kvitova last February. She did not disappoint, surviving a stern two-hour test of her nerve to progress to the last eight of the Yarra Valley Classic.
After shaking off some rust in a three-set exhibition loss to world No 2 Simona Halep in Adelaide and then blowing off more cobwebs with a straight-sets win over Ana Bogdan in her tournament opener, Barty was forced to dig deep on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old breezed through the opening set without dropping a game, then recovered from losing the second and retained her cool in a topsy-turvy deciding set to prevail. The top seed said it was not easy backing up from her match against Bogdan on Tuesday night.
“I’m an early riser so I didn’t get a hell of a lot of sleep last night,” Barty said. “But it’s fantastic to be back out here. It was a really solid match. I felt like in the middle of the match I just pressed a little bit and lost my execution. But I’m glad to find it in the end. I get another opportunity to play tomorrow.”
Barty will play American Shelby Rogers in the last eight and could potentially face Williams in the semi-finals.