Barty scrapes through for
much-needed win in Adelaide
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[January 14, 2020]
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - World
number one Ash Barty was staring at a second consecutive first-round
exit from Australian Open warmup events on Tuesday before grinding
out a 4-6 6-3 7-5 win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the
Adelaide International.
Beaten by American Jennifer Brady in her Brisbane International
opener last week, the Australian arrived at Memorial Drive looking
to build confidence ahead of the season's opening Grand Slam but was
quickly on the back foot.
The 23-year-old dropped the opening set to Pavlyuchenkova before
winning the second and storming to a 5-2 lead in the third, only to
let the Russian claw back to 5-5.
Barty regained her composure, however, and broke Pavlyuchenkova
before closing out a the match in steamy conditions.
"I definitely was able to find a bit more of my kind of style tennis
and control the match a little bit more in the third," Barty told
reporters.
"Credit to Anastasia ... We've always had very close ones. She
pretty much controls the whole match. I'm just out here trying to do
the best that I can."
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![](../images/011420pics/sports57.jpg)
Australia's Ashleigh Barty celebrates after winning the final
against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina REUTERS/Aly Song
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The Australian will meet the winner of the match between compatriot
and qualifier Arina Rodionova and eighth seed Marketa Vondrousova,
who lost to Barty in the final of last year's French Open.
Rodionova, ranked world number 201, sprung the upset of the day by
tipping former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens out of the
tournament 6-2 6-2 on center court.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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