Australian Open: Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka advance to next round with straight set wins
Red-hot Ashleigh Barty continued to breeze through the Australian Open draw with another thumping win at Melbourne Park on Wednesday, while Naomi Osaka stayed on course to successfully defend her title.
Having dropped just one game in her opening match, world No 1 Barty made it only three in two matches, seeing off Italian qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1 6-1 in just 52 minutes.
Barty, who is aiming to be the first Australian woman to win the home championship since 1978, hammered 11 winners to wrap up the first set in 25 minutes and she was equally as dominant in the second, sealing the victory in under an hour.
Bronzetti, the world No 142, failed to muster up a single break point over the contest as the Wimbledon champion lobbed, sliced and pounded her into submission in the bright Melbourne sunshine.
Read: Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury will happen in late 2022 or early next year
Osaka on the other end survived a close second set to see off American Madison Brengle 6-0 6-4.
The 13th seed was ruthless in the first set, hitting 13 winners to zero, but Brengle began to make life difficult for the defending champion in the second set and led by a break at 4-3.
Osaka recomposed herself immediately, though, and reeled off three games in a row to clinch victory and set up a clash with young American Amanda Anisimova.
Anisimova said of meeting Osaka: “I’ve been wanting to play her for a while. I’ll enjoy it, I’ll enjoy the atmosphere. She’s an amazing player, so I’ll look forward to that.”
Italian Camila Giorgi reached the third round at Melbourne for the fourth time with a 6-2 7-6 (7-2) win over Tereza Martincova to set up a meeting with world No 1 Ashleigh Barty with defending champion Naomi Osaka potentially waiting in the fourth round.
