The world’s number one in women’s tennis, Ashleigh Barty, overcame the first round of the Australian Open after an easy victory over Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko with 2-0 (6:0, 6:1). The match lasted only 54 minutes.
Ashleigh Barty’s dominance was total, as she won 11 consecutive games, and Lesia Tsurenko took only one game at 5-0 for the Australian in the second set.
In the second round, Ashleigh Barty will face Italian Lucia Bronzetti, who is the world’s number 145. In her first match, Lucia Bronzetti won by 2-1 (3:6, 6:2, 6:3) over the Russian Varvara Gracheva.
Surprisingly, the 18th-seeded Cori “Coco” Gauff lost to Chinese Wang Qiang with 2-0 (6:4, 6:2). The match lasted 1 hour and 13 minutes, as the Chinese managed to make 4 breaks against only 1 of the American, which made the difference. Wang Qiang also won 72% of second serve points.
In the second round, the Chinese player will face the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, who defeated the Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa with 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
The fourth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova continues to the second round after beating German Andrea Petkovic with 2-0 (6:2, 6:0) in an hour and seven minutes. The Czech will face the Chinese Xiyu Wang in the next round, who eliminated the Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova with 2-0 (7:5, 6:3).
In the purely American clash, Madison Keys prevailed over Sofia Kenin with 2-0 (7:6, 7:5). In the next phase, Madison Keys will face the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian, who eliminated the Belgian Greet Minnen with 2-0 (7:5, 6:4).
Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo defeated the Belgian player Kirsten Flipkens with 2-0 (6:4, 6:1). In the second round, she will face Marta Kostyuk, who defeated the French player Diane Parry at the start with 2-0 (6:1, 7:6).
Latvian Jelena Ostapenko also qualified for the second round, beating Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlova with 2-0 (6:7, 6:4, 6:1) in a 2-hour and 15-minute match. In the next round, she will play against Alison Riske, who won by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2) over Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
