Australian teenager Ashleigh Barty has pulled off a stunning opening round upset, knocking out 2012 finalist Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets to cap a great day for Australian players in Brisbane.
Barty joins Marinko Matosevic and her doubles partner Casey Dellacqua in the second round. Fellow teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis won his third and final qualifying match today to make it a quadrella for Australia.
“It’s exciting that all three Aussies on centre court today had a win,” said Barty.
“I was able to play pretty well tonight, so I’m pretty happy with it.”
Barty had to fight her way through the qualifying rounds just to get to the main draw where she was dealt a difficult first-round opponent in Hantuchova.
But the 17-year-old Queenslander took it all in her stride as she calmly and competently dissected her opponent – a former top 10 player and Grand Slam semifinalist.
“Tonight it was so fun going out there. When you walk out you hear the roar of the crowd, and that kind of gets you going a little bit.
“In the end you forget who is down at the other end and you just try and play the ball as best you can and do what you need to do.”
Barty’s reward for winning through to the second round is a potential match with Maria Sharapova who plays Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Pat Rafter Arena tonight (Monday).
“Yeah, obviously it’s amazing and she’s [Sharapova] such an amazing player. She’s definitely built a reputation of a fighter. I just hope to go out there, and if she does win, hopefully we can have a good match.”
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