Riske falls to Barty in fourth round of Open
MELBOURNE, Australia – There would be no déjà vu for No.1 seed Ashleigh Barty, who overcame No.18 seed Alison Riske 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open to reverse the result of their clash at the same stage of Wimbledon last year.
Barty had in fact lost to the McMurray native in both of their previous encounters, with a 2016 loss in the Eastbourne ITF 50K event followed by a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 defeat last July in her first major as World No.1. This time, though, playing Riske away from her beloved grass for the first time, the 23-year-old delivered a composed tactical performance to overcome a mid-match dip and move into the quarterfinals of her home major for the second year in a row – extending her winning streak to eight matches.
Afterwards, Barty paid tribute to her opponent. “Alison is not just a tough opponent for me, she’s a tough opponent for every single girl on the tour,” she stated. “She has the ability to adapt her game, to make the opponent uncomfortable. I think she’s got a great tennis brain of problem solving, as well.”
Aiding Barty’s cause were a series of sweet forehands she hit late in the third set-necessary needle-threading against an extremely fit, dogged and intelligent opponent. Against a great many players, Barty’s mix of slice backhands and flat forehands creates discomfort.
“She definitely does a lot of things that are abnormal,” said Riske. “I do enjoy playing against her.”
As evidenced by her many fine results on grass, Riske prefers these kind of low-bouncing balls, drives that allow her to strike the ball more firmly than she does against players who hit with more topspin than Barty.
With Riske serving at 0-3, 30-40 in the first set, all seemed on course for Barty. But when Riske lunged to track down a snappy service return, Barty lined her approach into the net. On another break point, Riske hit a 100 M.P.H. ace down the T. Riske held, broke serve, but was then broken again to give Barty a 4-2 lead. Showing off her own fitness and exceptional versatility, Barty drew on her entire portfolio-slice, drive, topspin, volley-to at last close out the first set in 34 minutes.
But the wheels came off rapidly for Barty in the second. Serving at 0-1, 30-15, a missed forehand, double-fault and unforced error off the backhand handed Riske the break.
The old Melbourne saying about the weather-“four seasons in a day”-surfaced, most notably in the form of a chilly breeze less akin to the Australian and more like Eastbourne, the seaside British town where Riske had earned her other win over Barty.
“It was very up and down from both of us,” said Riske, who in just 27 minutes-aided by 12 unforced errors from Barty-leveled the match.