Ashleigh Barty was on the verge of defeat against Karolina Pliskova on Friday at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, but the top seed managed to fight back from a break down in the final set to book her place in the semifinals.
The Aussie was two points from a loss as Pliskova served for the match at 5-4, but she was able to recover and pull off a captivating 2-6 6-1 7-5 victory.
"In a sense it was probably a match of two sets," said Barty in her post-match interview. "In the first set I wasn't able to build any pressure. Kaja was getting in and out of her serving games too quickly, and in turn was then having freedom on my service games. But being able to flip that switch right from the first game of the second set was important. To then make it more of a physical match was what we were after, and over time we were able to get the match back on my terms as much as we expected."
The World No.1 has now won her last eight matches against Top 10 opposition, with her last loss coming against Kiki Bertens in the round robin stage of the 2019 WTA Finals.
"I try and narrow that focus for every single match regardless of who I'm playing," said Barty. "But when you come up against Top 10 opponents, you have to go to that level above to be able to compete. They force you to bring your best. With a lot of the girls in the Top 10, we've had plenty of matches that have gone either way, different experiences, so each time I love that challenge of testing myself against the best."
Barty will look to keep the streak going against another Top 10 opponent on Saturday, as she faces fourth seed Elina Svitolina for a place in the final.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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