Australian Ashleigh Barty will be out to continue some strong form in the first round of the US Open when she runs into 21st seed Ana Konjuh. Join The Roar for live scores from around 6:30am (AEST).
Barty, who has had disappointing grand slam results outside of her home one this year has found a rich vein of form during the lead-up to the US Open.
After a third round exit in her return to Tennis at the start of this year in the Australian Open, Barty will be looking to emulate that success on the same surface and is positioned to do so.
She had to fight through qualifiers in both Toronto and Cincinnati, but she has advanced her world ranking to 42 and that will only drive the motivation to another level, with a potential seeding banging on the door for the Australian Open next year.
Her biggest victory, undoubtedly came in Cincinnati over Venus Williams, but she has also beaten Madison Brengle, Kirsten Flipkens and Elena Vesnina who are all extremely talented players.
While the Australian’s form continues to go from strength to strength, the same can’t be said for her 19-year-old Croatian opponent.
At that age, consistency is always going to be an issue and after a quarter-final run in New York last year, she followed it up with a pair of second round exits in Australia and France, followed by a fourth rounder in Wimbledon.
That form has well and truly dropped away though, with Konjuh suffering a quarter-final loss to Garbine Muguruza in Stanford and then worryingly, two first round exits in her last tournaments at Toronto and Cincinnati to Kirsten Flipkens and Dominika Cibulkova respectively.
Injury has also been an issue after she was forced to withdraw from the match against Flipkens. Her serve has been lacking, and if that doesn’t improve then Barty will be all over her from the first ball, but given form and consistency issues, it’s hard to see Konjuh turning it around in such a short window.
The pair have never faced each other before this match and the winner will advance to the second round for a meeting with either Aliaksandra Sasnovich or Julia Boserup.
Prediction
Barty’s form line has been impressive in the U.S. and she performs well on hard courts. Konjuh has struggled and despite a quarter-final run in New York last year, this feels like the perfect recipe for an upset.
Barty in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this match from around 6:30am (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
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