News | WTA Tennis English

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

MIAMI, FL, USA – Ashleigh Barty picked up her first singles victory at the Miami Open in style, downing Eugenie Bouchard in three sets to set up a second-round clash with her countrywoman Samantha Stosur.

“It was a little bit scratchy today, but I’m happy to come through in the end and get a chance to play a second round here,” Barty told the crowd after the match.

“I love Miami and it’s the first time I’ve ever played singles here. So it’s certainly nice to play on a beautiful center court like this.”

The young Australian needed just over two hours to complete the 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Bouchard and extend the Canadian’s Miami losing streak to five matches in a row.

Barty employed the aggressive, solid tennis that led her to capture her maiden WTA title at the Alya WTA Malaysian Open three weeks ago, pouncing on a shaky Bouchard service game to break the Canadian six times during the encounter.

After narrowly dropping the opening set, Bouchard reigned in the unforced errors to rally back in the second. But the strong Barty second serve bailed the Aussie out of trouble time and again, keeping Bouchard out of the rallies. Bouchard posted 26 winners to 55 unforced errors against Barty’s 21 and 40.

“I think I was able to be very aggressive on the returns and use my forehand,” Barty explained. “I made a few errors as well but I knew I needed to be aggressive to give myself a chance, and I think I did that today.”

Awaiting in the second round will be No.14 seed Samantha Stosur, a fellow Aussie and one whose game Barty knows quite well.

“It’ll be nice to take on Sam, we’ve practice together a lot in the past even though we’ve never played against each other. I think I’ll have to be very aggressive off the return and try to take the serve away from her.

“I think it’ll be a little bit of a ‘battle of the forehands’ from us, but we’ll see how we go.”

Also in action on Day 2, a number of qualifiers recorded strong performances to make their way into the second round. Qualifiers Risa Ozaki (def. Louisa Chirico 3-6, 7-5, 6-1), Patricia Maria Tig (def. Heather Watson 7-6(4), 6-1), Taylor Townsend (def. Amanda Anisimova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3), Anett Kontaveit (def. Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-1), Aliaksandra Sasnovich (def. Alizé Cornet 6-4, 1-6, 6-4), Varvara Lepchenko (6-3, 6-3), Veronica Cepede Royg (def. 6-2, 6-4), Jana Cepelova (def. Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-4) and Madison Brengle (def. Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 3-6, 6-2) all advanced.

Also through to the second round is wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who recorded her first win of 2017 to advance past Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Qiang Wang came back from a first-set shutout to knock out qualifier Donna Vekic 0-6, 6-4, 6-2. Lucie Safarova defeated Yanina Wickmayer 7-6(2), 6-4, while France’s Pauline Parmentier knocked out her countrywoman Oceane Dodin 6-2, 6-1 and Shelby Rogers edged past qualifier Marina Erakovic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). Wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic survived a rollercoaster against lucky loser Magda Linette to advance 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

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