Women's Tennis Blog · Jan 11, 2019
Ashleigh Barty returns to Sydney finals, Kvitova awaits
Home favorite Ashleigh Barty surged into her second straight Sydney International final rallying from a set down to beat seventh seed Kiki Bertens 6-7(4) 6-4 7-5. Later in the rainy day, fifth seed Petra Kvitova joined the 22-year-old from Ipswich in the closing stage of the tournament, blasting past Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1 6-2.
After erasing two Grand Slam champions from the draw (Jelena Ostapenko in the first round and No.1 Simona Halep in the second round), the world No.15 Barty got past tenth seed Elise Mertens in the quarterfinals and has now moved into the final, never dropping serve after losing the first set in a tiebreak against Bertens.