LONDON — The serve was not at full throttle and the strokes were often rather wayward, but that did not stop Ash Barty from reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-5 6-3 win over French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova on Monday.
Long tipped as a future Wimbledon champion, the Australian world No. 1 has had to wait nine long years since making her main draw debut in 2012 to finally put herself in the last-eight mix at the grasscourt major.
Facing an opponent who until last Tuesday had never played a main draw singles match on turf, Barty had been expected to easily make her greater grasscourt pedigree count.
Yet she was the one who came unstuck fi…
Keep on reading: Barty survives Krejcikova test to finally reach Wimbledon quarters