Australian Open | Ashleigh Barty passes easily in the third round

(Melbourne) Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, Spain’s Paula Badosa and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka easily reached the third round of the Australian Open women’s singles on Wednesday in Melbourne.

On the Rod-Laver Arena court, Barty, world number one and crowd favorite, scored an incisive 6-1, 6-1 victory in just 52 minutes over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti.

Barty, who advanced to the third round at Melbourne Park for the sixth straight year, has now played 48 straight games without losing serve. She had conceded just one game in her first-round match, which also lasted less than an hour.

Already the holder of two career Grand Slam titles, in Paris in 2019 and at Wimbledon last year, Barty is trying to become the first woman from Australia, since 1978, to win her country’s major tournament.

In the next round, Barty will face another Italian, Camila Giorgi, 30^and seed, who beat Czech Tereza Martincova 6-2, 7-6 (2). If she wins this match, Barty could face defending champion Naomi Osaka of Japan in the fourth round.

On the same court earlier in the day, eighth-seeded Badosa earned her bye to the next round following a 6-0, 6-3 win over Martina Trevisan, also of Italy. . As for Azarenka, she took just 73 minutes to defeat Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann 6-1, 6-2.

In other day program singles matches, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk as well as USA’s Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula posted straight-set wins.

For her part, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, 15^and seed, needed more than two hours to defeat France’s Harmony Tan 6-3, 5-7, 5-1. Tan was forced to abdicate due to a leg injury.

Svitolina waited on the field at Arena Margaret-Court for Tan, who had received treatment to her lower left leg after the fifth game of the third set, to be wheeled off the playing surface.

“It’s always horrible when an athlete is injured in competition. She played really well and didn’t make it easy for me. It was a tough game. It’s hard to see a player leave like that,” Svitolina said.

Sporting a massive bandage on her lower left leg, the 24-year-old Frenchwoman couldn’t even get to the ball when serving Svitolina. On the next game, Tan tried an underhand serve, hoping to finish the match rather than give up.

Referee-in-chief Richard Haigh suggested Tan quit or risk making her situation worse, as she also appeared to be suffering from cramps in her right leg.

With his mother signaling him to step down from the stands, Tan left the court in tears, after receiving a hug from Svitolina and loud applause from the spectators.

Following the losses of Leylah Annie Fernandez and Rebecca Marino on Tuesday, there are no more Canadian women in singles.

Fernandez had hoped to recover in women’s doubles, but she and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand lost 6-3, 6-1 to Australia’s Lizette Cabrera and Priscilla Hon in a first-round match.

Miomir Kecmanovic, beneficiary of the expulsion of his compatriot Novak Djokovic whom he should have faced from the start, also qualified for the third round at the expense of the American Tommy Paul (41^and world) 7-6 (9/7), 7-5, 7-6 (10/8).

In the next round, things will get even tougher for the Serb (77^and) who will face the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (26^and).

“I had to win for him too,” said Kecmanovic in reference to Djokovic after eliminating in the first round the lucky loser (player eliminated in the third qualifying round) Italian Salvatore Caruso (146^and), replacing the world No.1 in the table.