Barty beats Kerber to reach Zhuhai semis

ZHUHAI, China: Australia’s Ashleigh Barty stunned former world number one Angelique Kerber in straight sets to reach the WTA Elite Trophy semi-finals on Thursday.

Twenty-one-year-old Barty, the youngest player at the season-ending tournament in China, needed just one hour and 11 minutes to down her German opponent 6-3, 6-4 at Zhuhai’s Hengqin International Tennis Centre.

It follows an impressive victory over fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Wednesday, also in straight sets.“I felt like I served great today,” Barty told media after Thursday’s match.

“I put myself in a good position in my service games to then be super-aggressive and nice and clear when returning so I can, you know, have a little bit more of a crack and then see if I can get some of those early breaks in the sets.”

Barty got off to an impressive start against eighth seed Kerber, securing a break in the sixth game and then firing an ace to win the set.

The pair exchanged breaks at the beginning of the second set as Kerber fought back, but Barty prevailed, helped by her 11 aces to the German’s two.The pair’s sole previous meeting was in Brisbane in January when Kerber survived a big scare from the Australian wildcard entry.

The 2011 junior Wimbledon champion has enjoyed a resurgence since returning to tennis in 2016.Later on Thursday, Latvian fifth seed Anastasija Sevastova overpowered Czechoslovakia’s Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4.

Sevastova, on a career-high ranking of world number 15, also hammered US Open champion Sloane Stephens on Wednesday — leaving the American with her third successive defeat since winning the US Open.

But Coco Vandeweghe, the number two seed, also from the US, managed to triumph over Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the final singles match of the day on Thursday with a score of 6-3, 6-2.The results mean Vandeweghe and Sevastova have also booked their spots in the semis of the round robin tournament.