By Chris Oddo | Saturday January 19, 2019
Aussie Ash Barty roared back from a set down to deliver a clutch win over Maria Sharapova on Day 7.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
It’s a Barty party in Melbourne.
Australia’s Ash Barty knocked off five-time major champion Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 2:22 to book her first major quarterfinal.
It was a tale of two—and almost three—matches as Sharapova started strong and took a tight opener by racking up the final three games. At that time it looked to be a monumental task—Sharapova entered the day with a 181-9 lifetime record at the majors when she had won the opener—but the Aussie put on her hard hat and got to work on the task of breaking down Sharapova’s vaunted ground game.
She did so brilliantly in the second set and on into the third, at one point reeling off nine straight games as the Rod Laver Faithful got rowdier and rowdier behind their beloved Barty, who would go on to become the first Aussie woman to reach the last eight at Melbourne since Jelena Dokic in 2009.
Barty did it with poise and patience, as she was content to stand in and trade blows with Sharapova until she saw fit to masterfully deploy her slice or step in to knock off a volley.
As Barty probed Sharapova fizzled, losing her range and racking up the unforced errors until she finally put a stop to the bleeding after falling behind 4-0 in the decider.
Sharapova would surge to live from there, reeling off a trio of games to close to 4-3, but Barty maintained her break and fought nerves valiantly to close out the match with a pair of holds.
Barty needed four match points to finally close out Sharapova, who saved a first match point with a forehand winner to get to 40-30, and then got to deuce when Barty double-faulted on the next point. An ace gave Barty a third match point but she netted a forehand to take the game back to deuce.
When a Sharapova backhand clipped the net Barty had a fourth match point and she slid an ace down the T to raise the roof on RLA.