Ashleigh Barty booked her place in the Aegon Open quarterfinals for the second year in a row after dismantling qualifier Jana Fett in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 in Nottingham.
The unseeded Australian was dominant on serve and had the power to outlast her Croatian opponent from the baseline from early on in the match. After the match started with two service holds each Barty only lost one more game over the course of the match as she strolled to yet another win here at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
This was the players first meeting and both women had to go through tough three setters to book their place in the second round. Qualifier Fett ousted the seventh seed Mona Barthel 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, while Barty came back from a set down to defeat Tatjana Maria 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
The qualifier looked set to make the perfect start when she moved to a 0-40 advantage in Barty’s first service game, but the Australian fought back well to win five points in a row to hold. After a series of service holds it was Barty who made the first breakthrough, coming back from 30-0 down on her opponent’s serve to break Fett and quickly establish a 5-2 lead. The Australian out hit Fett from the back of the court and had too much power as she established a second break of serve to seal the first set 6-2.
Fett did not get off to the best of starts in the second set having to face two break points in the second game. The Croatian saved the first with a one-two punch combination, but a double fault handed Barty a 2-0 lead. In the following game the qualifier worked her way to her first break point chances since the first game of the match and on this occasion she capitalised after the Australian drove her backhand long over the baseline.
Despite having a couple of opportunities to level the score at 2-2 Fett was unable to get over the line, allowing her higher-ranked opponent to get the break back immediately on her way to establishing a commanding 4-1 lead.
From there it did not take the Australian long to finish off the match, breaking the Croatian’s serve once again before serving it out to love to set up a quarterfinal match with either top seed Johanna Konta or Yanina Wickmayer.
