ASH Barty is into the Adelaide International final today with a chance to win her second Adelaide International title. Having won the title a couple of years back, Barty overcame her biggest hurdle of the tournament thus far with a dominant straight sets win over reigning champion, Iga Swiatek. Both Roland Garros winners, Barty won 6-2 6-4 against the the youngster without too much fuss to advance through to the decider.

Barty won the match in an hour and 27 minutes, serving with a 67.9 per cent clipmand winning 76.3 and 66.7 per cent of her first and second points. By comparison, Swiatek served at 61.9 per cent, and claimed 69.2 and 37.5 per cent of her service points. The Australian world number one also saved both break points, and broke Swiatek three times from five chances in the match.

“Today I felt like I was probably able to look after my service games really well,” Barty said post-match. “I felt like on Iga’s service games I was able to get into most of them, which is important when you’re playing someone who can dominate with that first ball and first strike. I felt like I was able to build pressure over time, making her play a lot of balls on her service games, not giving her too many cheapies.

“I think all in all I was able to stay in most games. I didn’t get blown away with too many runs of two, three, four points in a row, which was a nice improvement from the last couple matches. “Obviously with Iga, she has the ability to take the court away from you and take positioning away. As soon as I had an opportunity and a sniff, I needed to be able to take it, take the initiative.

“I felt I had a good balance tonight of being able to run and move and neutralise. As soon as I was able to get a little bit of time on the ball, I was able to create with the forehand, which is a good thing. It was what we were after tonight. I was able to do it pretty well.”

Barty now comes up against Elena Rybakina in the Australian’s 20th WTA Tour final, with Barty having beaten the Kazakh in their only meeting back at the Australian Open a couple of years back.

ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

WTA 500:

[1] Ash Barty (AUS) defeated [5] Iga Swiatek (POL) 6-2 6-4
[7] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) defeated Misaki Doi (JPN) 6-4 6-3

ATP 250:

[1] Gael Monfils (FRA) defeated [WC] Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) 7-5 6-0
[2] Karen Khachanov (RUS) defeated [3] Marin Cilic (CRO) 7-6 6-3

MATCHES TO WATCH TODAY: FINALS

[1] Ash Barty (AUS) vs. [7] Elena Rybakina (KAZ)
[1] Gael Monfils (FRA) vs. [2] Karen Khachanov (RUS)

MELBOURNE SUMMER SET

WTA 250 (1):

[2] Simona Halep (ROU) defeated [Q] Qinwen Zheng (CHN) 6-3 6-2
[3] Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) defeated [1] Naomi Osaka (JPN) W/O

WTA 250 (2):

Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) defeated [7] Ann Li (USA) 7-6 2-6 6-3
Amanda Anisimova (USA) defeated [3] Daria Kasatkina (RUS) 6-2 6-0

ATP 250:

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) 6-4 7-5
[Q] Maxime Cressy (USA) defeated [3] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 7-5 7-6

MATCHES TO WATCH TODAY: FINALS

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. [Q] Maxime Cressy (USA)
[2] Simona Halep (ROU) vs. [3] Veronika Kudermetova (RUS)
Amanda Anisimova (USA) vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR)