Australian Open 2022 - Ashleigh Barty flattens Lesia Tsurenko to advance to second round in Melbourne
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Updated 17/01/2022 at 13:26 GMT
Home favourite and 2021 Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty confirmed her status as the favourite in Melbourne as she swept aside Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko in under an hour in her first round match at the Australian Open. Barty was utterly dominant against a nervous Tsurenko, and the world number one fell just one game short of a double bagel.
Highlights: Imperious Barty crushes Tsurenko to lay down marker
Ashleigh Barty was in imperious form as she demolished underdog Lesia Tsurenko 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the Australian Open.
World number one Barty capitalised on a nervous Tsurenko by breaking in the second game of the first set, while the underdog took Barty to deuce twice on serve she could not break the Wimbledon champion.
Tsurenko's serve continued to waver and Barty broke again with ease before making it 5-0 with a hold to love.
The first set belonged to the Australian after just 24 minutes with Tsurenko and the second continued in a similar vein. Barty held to love before a double fault on the Ukrainian's serve made it 2-0.
A ninth successive game inside just 36 minutes followed, and yet another break of the Tsurenko serve came next as she smashed the net with Barty unrelenting in her pursuit of a spot in round 2.
But Tsurenko avoided a humiliating double bagel with a gusty game to stop the rot and get on the scoreboard.
A pair of unforced errors for Barty saw Tsurenko save two match points and hold serve for the first time in the match to cheers from the crowd.
But the home favourite put that shortest of blips behind her, serving out the match with her fourth match point attempt in under an hour.
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'This is beautiful' - Barty overjoyed to be back on 'home soil'
"This is beautiful, it’s felt like an eternity," said Barty on court.
Nice to be back on home soil, it was a lot of fun out here. It was nice and clean, end to end, I did a good job, it’s windy at court level. I feel like I enjoyed it, that was the important thing.
"[On her Vogue spread] I am a proud indigenous woman, I love my heritage, I love to celebrate my heritage, it’s what keeps me connected with the people, it’s what keeps me connected with the land."
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