Top
seed Ashleigh Barty of Australia got off to a comfortable victory in her
Australian Open campaign opener against qualifier Lesia Tsurenko. Barty took 54
minutes to beat Ukrainian Tsurenko 6-0, 6-1.

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Two
years back, at the Australian Open, Tsurenko gave Barty a scare, winning the
first set 5-7. But then Barty bounced back 6-1, 6-1in the next two sets to win
the match.

The
rematch was far easier for Barty as she produced a near-flawless outing to
advance to the next round. The Wimbledon champion raced through the first 11
games, facing game points in only one of them.

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There
was no further let-up until the penultimate game of the match when Barty was
unable to take two points for the double bagel, and Tsurenko managed to get on
the board for the first time.

But
it was too late for Tsurenko to save the match with Barty eventually needing
five match points.

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Barty
struck 14 winners, including five aces, to 17 unforced errors, and maintained a
58% first serve percentage – identical to Tsurenko. But her dominance lay in
her point construction rather than how the rallies ended, per se.

Barty to face Bronzetti in second
round

In
the second round, Barty will face another qualifier, Lucia Bronzetti. The
Italian, competing in her first Grand Slam main draw, came from a set down to
defeat Varvara Gracheva of Russia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

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Following
her Monday’s win, Barty talked about her service streak, “I’m not one for
stats at the best of times.” “But I think obviously the last five or six
matches I felt like I found a really good rhythm on my service games. I’ve been
able to serve my way out of some tricky spots and play some 30-30 points, while
not falling too far behind in service games. (It’s) been a massive part of my
week in Adelaide and again tonight.

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“I
think I did a pretty good job of winning first and second points. And if I
didn’t, I was able to call that back and not dig myself into a hole where I was
fighting off two or three breakpoints in a row. I think being able to manage
service games has been really good, but also not trying to overemphasise the
fact that if I do get behind in games it’s a bad thing,” Barty added.