In her first match at this year’s Miami Open, Ash Barty was one point from elimination. Now she is one win from becoming a repeat champion.
Top-ranked Barty on Thursday returned to the final by beating fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3.
Barty has gained momentum after starting the tournament by saving a match point against qualifier Kristina Kucova. That was Barty’s first match outside her native Australia since February last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Whenever you come back from a match point, it’s a little bit of a strange feeling,” Barty said. “You have to be more open with what the possibilities the rest of the tournament could be, and keep going out there and keep fighting, knowing you could have just as easily been out of the tournament.”
Barty is to play for the title today against Bianca Andreescu, who swept the final four games to beat Maria Sakkari 7-6 (9/7), 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that ended at 1:35am.
Andreescu improved to 7-1 this year in three-set matches. She advanced to her first final since winning the 2019 US Open.
In the men’s singles, unseeded 20-year-old Sebastian Korda’s breakthrough run ended with a quarter-final loss to Andrey Rublev, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7).
Rublev was to face Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the semis. Hurkacz advanced past second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I just try to like keep building my game and improving,” Hurkacz said. “Not all the time are you going to have the results that you want, but if you stay positive and improve your game, the results will eventually come.”
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