Ashleigh Barty will have another chance to build his championship confidence on Thursday, taking Alison Van Uytvanck to a place in the third round. The draw was not good for the World No. 1 which sits in the same quarter with last year's two finalists - Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.
That doesn't mean the French Open must be afraid of one of the opponents, especially in the form of him now. He followed up on his Paris title by winning in Birmingham, not losing a set in the process. He continued the series in the first round, passing Saisai Zheng in the opening. "I think [Zheng is] a very difficult opponent to start, very happy with the way we were able to enter the match. It takes time to adjust to different conditions and courts. This is a beautiful field to play, "he said afterwards. During Barty's short period as a promising junior star, he was the female champion of Wimbledon and has been a strong player in the grass throughout his career.
Van Uytvanck's best performances have been carried out on a fast indoor field, but he has struggled to change that shape to the same surface as fast for most. But he has his fourth round of his name at Wimbledon, getting that far last year thanks to wins over Garbine Muguruza and Anett Kontaveit. Barty is familiar with the threat of the Belgian, who beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. "He has the ability to take games from you quite early in the demonstration. Great service, first big blow after serving. "It's important for me to neutralize the best that I can and bring variety into the match too," he said.
It would be surprising if Barty left early with his clear belief in grass. He must be careful of capable opponents but not feel too much pressure at this time. "The only pressure I have is what I do for myself, making sure I do all the right things, preparing the right way," Barty said. "In the end when we played our match, we went there and enjoyed it. That's why we do all the work, all practices, to go there and enjoy competition. "
Prediction - Ashleigh Barty is in a straight set
Wimbledon 2019 live streaming, tournament information, schedules and more
This could be a far more challenging match, with all due respect to Zheng Saisai, because last year Alison van Uytvanck played one of the more impressive Wimbledon matches I have ever seen overthrew Garbine Muguruza, who was then defending champion, in the second round, 5- 7, 6-2, 6-1.
Muguruza's struggle for the past few years is well known but he has just reached the French Open semifinals and played well in that match; it's just that van Uytvanck was better and really tore the match from the hands of the Spaniard with a brilliant and deadly flat shot in the line from both wings. He also scored impressive wins over Polona Hercog and 28th seed Anett Kontaveit in the direct set before finally being stopped by Daria Kasatkina in the round of 16.
A top-50 player in 2015, when he reached the French Open quarter-final, van Uytvanck had ankle and arm problems in 2016 which had a big impact on his ranking, but then continued his journey back to the top 100 in 2017 when he won the title of his first WTA Tour in Quebec City and then won his second title in Budapest in 2018, which together with the Wimbledon round made him the highest career rank in the world no. 37.
Currently world ranking no. 58, van Uytvanck retained his title in Budapest in 2019 but did not have much impact elsewhere, although he made the semifinals at Rabat. Near Wimbledon, he made the ITF Surbiton quarterfinals $ 100b but could not win a back-to-back match at 's-Hertogenbosch or Mallorca, and his first round win over Svetlana Kuznetsova was his first Grand Slam victory since Wimbledon last year.
A consecutive player who has plenty of experience and good records on the grass, one of van Uytvanck's wins over the top 10 in nine attempts was over Muguruza at Wimbledon, and he also pushed Dominika Cibulkova and Belinda Bencic very hard on this. surface.
‘He has the ability to take the game from you quite early in the demonstration. Great service, first big blow after serving. It's important for me to neutralize the best that I can and bring variety to the match, too, "Barty said.
One of their meetings so far, on the hard court that was slow last summer, was a straight-set victory for Barty, but took it for granted by coming to this meeting. Van Uytvanck can hardly be played when he plays, and Barty must be precise and patient while not allowing himself to be too passive, looking for the service points and the forehand. A good return and doing whatever he can to stop van Uytvanck from following the rhythm is very important. I think it's complicated, potentially - but Barty that we saw on Tuesday, and in Birmingham, and at the French Open, must be more than capable of handling challenges.
