In-form Australian Ashleigh Barty yesterday said she was hitting top gear as she upset Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-1 to reach the Wuhan Open quarter-finals in China.
Barty did not allow Kerber any momentum as she denied the world No. 3 the chance to narrow the gap on the top ranking held by Simona Halep, who lost her opening match.
The Aussie wrapped up the match in just more than 75 minutes, setting up a quarter-final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Photo: AFP
“I feel like by far this was my best match,” said Barty, who is looking to end the season on a high. “I set myself that goal at the start of the year, that I want to stay top 20. I feel like I’m a top-20 player. Obviously, I would love to push toward the top 10.”
Barty, who won her first tour-level tournament this year in Nottingham, England, has been in fine form in Wuhan after beating Johanna Konta and Zheng Saisai in the first two rounds.
Kerber and Halep’s exits have presented an opportunity to world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki to push toward the top spot as well as qualification for next month’s WTA Finals in Singapore.
Six of eight places at the season finale are still up for grabs — only Halep and Kerber have qualified so far.
Wozniacki was to face reigning Olympic champion Monica Puig later yesterday.
In the second round of the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US fell to a 7-6 (7/1), 2-6, 10-7 defeat to Czech second seeds Andrea Sestini Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova in 1 hour, 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the ATP Shenzhen Open doubles round-of-16, Taiwan’s Hsieh Cheng-peng and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand lost 6-7, 5-7 to Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Dutchman Wesley Koolhof.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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