Ashleigh Barty reaches the women’s quarterfinals of the 2022 Australian Open

Ashleigh Barty (Rob Keating, Wikimedia Commons)

Australia’s own Ashleigh Barty is three wins away from accomplishing a feat that is not yet on her resume. That is to win the 2022 Australian Open. The 25-year-old native of Ipswich, and the two-time grand slam champion (2019 French Open and 2021 Wimbledon) reached the final eight on Sunday with a straight set 6-4, 6-3 win over American Amanda Anisimova in one hour and 14 minutes.

Barty was able to break Anisimova four times in the match, and had twice as many receiving points as her opponent (34 compared to 17). The 34-17 statistical line also applied to unforced errors, as Barty committed 17 fewer mistakes than Anisimova.

Anisimova was unseeded in Melbourne in 2022,  despite reaching the 2019 French Open semifinal also as an unseeded player. At Roland Garros three years ago, Anisimova had an amazing run as she beat current world number two Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in round two, and 2018 French Open champion and 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep of Romania in the quarterfinals before losing to Barty on clay.

In Melbourne this year, Anisimova once again beat a fierce opponent as she got by reigning Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka of Japan, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, before losing in straight sets to Barty. There is no doubt the tennis world would have been fascinated by a Barty/Osaska fourth round matchup, but it was simply not meant to be, as Anisimova had 11 aces, compared to five for Osaka, and won 10-5 in the third set super-tiebreak.

In addition to beating Anisimova, Barty has beaten Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko 6-0, 6-1 in the first round, Italian qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in the second round, and reigning Canadian Open champion Camila Giorgi of Italy, 6-2, 6-3 in the third round. Next up for Barty on Tuesday in the quarterfinals is American Jessica Pegula, the 21st seed. The other three quarterfinals have Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic versus Madison Keys of the United States, Danielle Collins of the United States versus Alize Cornet of France, and Iga Swiatek of Poland versus Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

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