Top seed Ashleigh Barty spent just 71 minutes on the court to defeat defending champion Victoria Azarenka 6-0 6-2 and reach the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
After a shaky performance in the previous round, Barty stormed past the 14th-ranked Azarenka and improved her 2021 record against Top 20 players to 13-1. The Australian won 27 of 31 points behind her first serve, including six aces. Even though her performance on second serve was very poor at 30%, Azareka’s was even worse.
The crucial advantage in Barty’s performance was the fact that she saved all three three break points she faced, while Azarenka faced nine break points and dropped serve five times.