Ashleigh Barty secured her maiden
Australian Open final appearance with a dominating display over
Madison Keys 6-1 6-3.
Ashleigh Barty was by far the best player in Melbourne so far and she continued that dominating run of form against Madison Keys as well. The American played superb tennis as well but against Barty, she had no chance. Somewhat expectedly she entered the match with a bit of nerves and it showed. Barty was pretty calm and played and served well.
She did not even have to do that much in the first set as Keys was all over the place. The American upped her aggressiveness after losing her serve but it did not amount to much. She hit only 3 winners while having 13 errors and that was only good enough for a 1-6 opening set loss.
She played a bit better in the 2nd set but most of the damage she did came after Barty dropped her focus a little bit. Keys even forced break points but Barty was able to hang on and save them. After shaking off that slow start, Barty quickly took control of the match with a more aggressive approach than in the first set. She had more winners and errors but it worked out as she took a 4-2 lead.
Keys posted a better ratio as well with 5 winners and only 9 errors but it was still not enough as Barty held on to win 6-1 6-3 in only 64 minutes of play. She is only one match away from her maiden Australian Open and it's hard seeing anybody stopping her.