Barty powers past Kerber into WTA Cincinnati final
World number one Ashleigh Barty reached her sixth final of the season on Saturday, beating Angelique Kerber 6-2, 7-5 at the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Masters.
The top-seeded Aussie, who has led the rankings for the past 82 weeks, needed an hour and a quarter to move into Sunday's title match, surpassing her semi-final showing from 2019 in the Ohio hardcourt tournament that is a tuneup for the US Open.
Barty will play for the trophy against Swiss wild card Jil Teichmann -- who beat Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-4 to reach a fourth career final but her first at the elite Masters 1000 level.
She needed 84 minutes to continue an outstanding week in which she beat Naomi Osaka in the third round and Olympic gold medallist compatriot Belinda Bencic in the quarters.
After ousting fourth-ranked Pliskova, Teichmann stands 4-0 this season against top 10 players.
"Playing center court against world number one in a final...it's perfect," the 24-year-old said as she looked toward the biggest final of her career.
Against Kerber, Barty increased her lead in the series between multiple Grand Slam winners to 4-2 as she duplicated a Wimbledon semi-final victory from last month.
Barty produced a dozen aces and broke Kerber five times. Her 39 match wins this year nudged her one ahead of Aryna Sabalenka on the WTA list.
The top seed needed to call upon some strategy to see her through to the win.
The pair twice traded breaks in the second set, with Barty finally getting the deciding fifth break in the final game.
"It was frustrating me, because I knew Angie was lifting (her game) and I needed to go with her," Barty said. "Not being able to execute the points when I had set them up the way that I wanted to was frustrating.
"I was able to get that momentum back with the break straight away, then it was a bit of a tug of war.
"I was able to build pressure on her games, but we both did a good job of getting out of some tough holes late in that second set.
"I had to accept that if I was going to miss I was going to miss in the right way. That was big at the end."
Kerber said that, finally, she was outplayed.
"She starts playing really aggressive, and I was just trying to find my rhythm," the German said.
"I tried to come back in the second set. I had my chances, but she played really well in important moments and closed the match her way.
"I'm pretty happy about my result this week, getting good matches before going to New York (for the US Open)."
Barty's 29 winners outpaced Kerber's 16.
The Aussie also had 18 unforced errors on the way to her 19th career final and a tour-best sixth of the season.
-
Ruling bloc seeks tougher sentences for deepfake sex crimesPresident Moon orders re谁更出彩?!新会陈皮系列产品包装创新设计评选启动Easy air fryer cheeseburger recipe gets delicious results with minimal workApple Intelligence is now a little easier to get outside the U.S.Isner signs off with Open loss'NK leader committed to denuclearization, summit with Trump'Roe v. Wade overturned by Supreme Court in historic decisionAnatomy of a KeyboardTwitter confirms it's exploring a crowdsourced fact
下一篇:Google Search tries new tactics for limiting explicit deepfakes
- ·Number Representations in Computer Hardware
- ·Microsoft Research shows off its augmented reality glasses
- ·‘Players have been united,’ insists Spain coach
- ·This epic boxing KO will give you a concussion just from watching
- ·By a technicality, August's full moon is blue. Here's why.
- ·Mark Zuckerberg has promised to make your Facebook and Instagram feeds even worse
- ·Technoblade, 'Minecraft' YouTube creator, dies aged 23, family and fans pay tribute
- ·Twitter's shareholders meeting was the same old hatefest — except for two things
- ·Weather update for second Pak vs Ban second Test match day one
- ·Fear in Kim Jong
- ·Sketchy dummy model could be Apple's final design for the iPhone 8
- ·Djokovic survives 'toughest match'
- ·广州市白云区供销联社携手6所院校15支队伍,加力提速推进“百千万工程”
- ·Spain crowned WWC champions
- ·用山药垒出一幢80万元别墅
- ·为荣誉而战 夺最高荣誉
- ·7 Reasons to Explore Boston’s Lesser
- ·雅安日报传媒集团团员辩论赛昨日落下帷幕
- ·流浪汉偷梨讨生被抓 好民警相助顺利回家
- ·Watch millions of people use Google's Quick, Draw in GIFs
- ·17 Places That Harness the Power of the Sun
- ·Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani has been spreading malware on Twitter
- ·‘Vital to make women feel safe’
- ·The best games inspired by the 'Alien' franchise, ranked
- ·Wordle today: The answer and hints for August 27
- ·Twitter confirms it's exploring a crowdsourced fact
- ·To Russia, with Love
- ·This new app wants to be the Uber of camping
- ·U.S. politicians can now pay for sponsored content on Facebook
- ·雨城区坚决打赢文明城市创建第一仗
- ·NCT member Taeil leaves band over sexual offense allegations
- ·What is brown noise? TikTok suggests it's better than white noise.
- ·Patreon irks users with new loan program Patreon Captial
- ·Woman's $15 'costume jewelry' ring turns out to be worth $450,000
- ·实干担当抓落实 多措并举促发展
- ·'Time' magazine's latest cover is a bold shot at Donald Trump and Russia