Ashleigh Barty wins all-Australian women’s quarterfinal battle at Wimbledon

Ashleigh Barty (Rob Keating, Wikimedia Commons)

Ashleigh Barty of Ipswich is now only one win away from her second grand slam final of her tennis career. On Tuesday, Barty defeated Ajla Tomljanovic of Brisbane 6-1, 6-3 in the women’s quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

It was a rather poor performance for Tomljanovic, who only won 48% of her points on her first serve, and 38% of her points on her second serve. In all, Tomljanovic had her service game broken six times by Barty, who definitely looked like the world number one.

According to Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated, this was the first all-Australian quarterfinal at a major since Wimbledon of 1980. That year, fourth seed Evonne Goolagong of Griffith defeated the sixth seed, Wendy Turnbull of Brisbane, 6-3, 6-2. Goolagong went on to win Wimbledon in 1980, as she beat Tracy Austin of the United States 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 in the semifinals, and then Chris Evert 6-1, 7-6 in the final. It was Goolagong’s seventh and final grand slam singles victory of her career.

Barty meanwhile is now in her third grand slam semifinal of her career. She previously reached the final four at the 2020 Australian Open, where she lost to Sofia Kenin of the United States, 7-6, 7-5, and then of course won the 2019 French Open, where she beat Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-3, in a dominant performance. The semifinal appearance for Barty comes one month after missing the 2021 French Open because of a hip injury. 

Barty will now play three-time grand slam champion Angelique Kerber of Germany in the semifinals. Kerber, who won the United States Open and Australian Open in 2016, and 2018 Wimbledon, is the 25th seed. Head-to-head, Kerber has the 3-2 advantage. In the other women’s semi, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the number two seed, will face the eighth seed, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

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