Ashleigh Barty defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-3 in
74 minutes to advance into the Australian Open quarterfinal. This is the fourth
time she qualified for the quarterfinal at the year’s first Grand Slam. The No. 1 seed in women’s singles,
Barty will face No.21 seed Jessica Pegula, who reached the last eight at
Melbourne Park for the second straight season after defeating No.5 seed Maria
Sakkari of Greece 7-6(0), 6-3.

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The Australian’s first meeting with Anisimova had
been a 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3 rollercoaster match in the 2019 Roland Garros
semifinals, in which she had lost the first set from 5-0 up but come from 3-0
down to take the second and thence the victory. However, on Sunday, there was no such situation as it was a one-sided match. Barty won
the pre-quarterfinal match quite comfortably.

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Barty looks to create history

Barty’s quest to become the first home women’s
champion at the Australian Open since Chris O’Neil in 1978 remains alive. In
her previous second-week showings, she lost in the 2019 quarterfinals to Petra
Kvitova, the 2020 semifinals to Sofia Kenin and the 2021 quarterfinals to
Karolina Muchova.

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Anisimova had come into the limelight after she
knocked out Naomi Osaka and, after winning the match, Barty reserved great
praise for her opponent following their contest.

“She’s an incredible athlete and an incredible
competitor. One of her best attributes is that she’s able to turn up point
after point,” Barty said on court.

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“I think it’s just nice to see her back playing
her best tennis. She’s a champion and she’s going to go deep in a lot of majors
in the future, that’s for sure.”

Barty wary of Jessica Pegula

Asked about her quarterfinal opponent Jessica
Pegula, Barty said, “She’s able to hold the baseline really well. Her
swings are quite linear and she gets a racquet behind the ball and swings
through the path. The ball comes at you at a different trajectory, and her
ability to absorb pace and then add to it when she wants to is exceptional.
It’s going to be a challenge for me to try and push her off that baseline and
make her uncomfortable and feel like she has to create.

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“But I know that she’s also going to be doing
the exact same thing to me and trying to make me uncomfortable. That’s the
chess game that we play. You go out there and have fun with it, see who can
execute better on the day, and that’s about all there is to it.”