Sunday, 22 August 2021 | AFP | Mason
No 1 seed Ashleigh Barty continued to reprise her Wimbledon title run at the Western & Southern Open, defeating Angelique Kerber 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 14 minutes to book her place in the final on Saturday.
A month ago, Barty had defeated Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round of Wimbledon and Kerber in the semifinals en route to lifting her second major trophy. This week, the Australian has repeated both of those results in Cincinnati to extend her 2021 record to 39-7 — a Tour-leading number of match wins. Against Kerber, she found 29 winners to the German’s 16, and kept her error tally to 18 compared to her opponent’s 21.
The victory moves Barty into her 19th career final, ninth at WTA 1000 level or higher, and a Tour-leading sixth of 2021. She will face either No 5 seed Karolina Pliskova in what would be a repeat of the Wimbledon final, or wildcard Jil Teichmann.
Key to the match: As in Barty’s previous two victories over Krejcikova and Victoria Azarenka, the World No 1 has mastered her opponents through a combination of stellar serving and a knack of rising to the occasion on important points. Though her first serve percentage against Kerber was only 56%, Barty nonetheless fired 12 aces to take her tournament total to 34.
Turning points: The first half of each set comprised a tightly contested passage of play in which little separated the two Grand Slam champions. At 2-2 in the first, the match was evenly poised, with both players having displayed some electrifying tennis. From 0-2 down in the second, Kerber raised her game in stellar fashion to lead by a break at 3-2, and then to cling on valiantly until 5-5.
In both sets, Barty was able to turn a finely balanced situation into a sprint to the finish line. At 3-2 in the first set, she came up with her boldest shotmaking of the day — a blitzed forehand crosscourt followed by a cheeky dropshot return — to break Kerber for the first time. In the second, another exquisite dropshot garnered her the crucial hold for 6-5, whereupon Kerber’s forehand collapsed in the final game to leak three errors.
On Friday, Barty recovered from being down a break in the second set to sweep past fellow French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-4.
The Australian handed her Czech opponent only a third loss since mid-May.
“I feel like I did a good job looking after my own serves,” Barty said. “For all but one service game, I felt like a lot of the time I was in control.
“It was just staying patient, knowing that I was doing the right things.”
