Ashleigh Barty made her debut count at the Miami Open Wednesday. The recent WTA title winner came out with a mission for victory and did it in a hard fought three setter against Eugenie Bouchard to win 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 on Stadium Court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. It was the third straight tournament that an opponent with a lower rank managed to take down the Canadian in the opening round.
The two haven’t met before making it a big stage for something major to occur. The Australian came off a title victory at Kuala Lumpur earning her first career WTA title. The 20-year-old carried a seven-match winning streak and hoped to keep it going. Bouchard suffered a bad exit from the BNP Paribas Open losing her opening round for the second consecutive tournament. Playing in a more comfortable environment, the Canadian hoped that having somewhat of a home advantage could be just the change she needed to succeed in the second straight WTA premier mandatory.
Bouchard gave up the opening game despite trying to save from giving up the break. Unforced errors handed Barty the win. She recovered fast with a matching break in the second to prevent early problems. Barty sat out front still showing her interest to build a pace and dictate the Canadian. Despite having four double faults, the young Australian managed to hold service for the first time smashing a winner that Bouchard couldn’t respond on.
Gaining a hold of serve was essential for Bouchard in the fifth. She still had trouble bringing a powerful offense but got through with an important win to keep her in reach. Tomas Högstedt came out to speak with Bouchard telling her that points were available to her if she could answer on them.
Barty continued setting the bar for her opponent consolidating another service hold to her name maintaining a two-game lead. The Canadian showed consistency and stayed with Barty in her attempts to turn the tables while available. Barty didn’t allow her to formulate a full comeback as she remained solid with the ball in hand winning the opening set in 38 minutes.
Confidence was playing well for Barty who wanted to keep things going if her skills allowed her to do so. Bouchard needed to be the stronger figure going into the second and proved that with a service hold in the set helping her make a statement. Another went to the Canadian on three break points returning big to overwhelm the Australian.
Gaining three games in a row was a huge improvement for Bouchard as she had Barty figured out on both sides of her game with the offense increasing from both parts of the serve. Just when it looked like the 23-year-old had full control, the service game from Barty allowed her to end the shutout and get on the board. Adding a second victory gave her some leverage to push the envelope and recover from the deficit in full. Bouchard helped with that to set up a love service that Barty completed with an ace on the line.
The Montreal native denied her Australian opponent a chance to take the lead in the game as holding serve was the mission at hand. She pulled it out with help of her first serve and returns that kept her out front. It turned into a race with Barty fighting to keep the service hold consistent. Her backhand assisted with getting the win by two game points that put the Canadian under pressure.
Bouchard answered with a great hold in the ninth setting her up to go for the break and pressure Barty into pushing the match to its distance. With a battle to force deuce, Barty made her move to hold the advantage by any means. Her victory in the tenth gave her a chance to still win the match. The 11th was a fight for supremacy as the two wanted to get the upper hand on the other. They went to deuce where it was a tug of war but after four breaks, Bouchard won it on a well-placed winner to play for a chance at the set and a force of a possible third. The Canadian fought for the break points reaching the point where another winner away from Barty gave her that chance to play on.
The third was a key point for the players as one bad break could spell trouble. Through six games, both Barty and Bouchard played their service games to their absolute best making it a tight race. It was in the seventh that the Australian began to take the key step away. She picked up another game on serve that sent the nerves of the Canadian into a rush. She gained three match points where the second attempt gave her a well-deserved win after two hours and five minutes.
“It was a little bit scratchy today but I’m just happy to come through here,” Barty said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “It’s the first time I’ve played singles here and I love Miami.”
Barty carried herself to the finish line with a first serve that was well enough to cross her into an interesting second round match against fellow Australian Samantha Stosur.
“It’ll be nice to play Sam,” she said. “We practiced a lot together in the past but well fight against each other and its very similar and be aggressive on returns and well see how we go.”
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