Editor
Scores updated regularly. REFRESH NOW
2017 Brisbane International Men's Singles, 1st Round Brisbane Ashleigh Barty vs Lesia Tsurenko |
---|
|
||||
|
||||
|
Fresh off a year in which she rose from relative obscurity to become Australia’s highest-ranked tennis player, Ashleigh Barty will look to continue her stellar form in 2018 when she takes on Ukrainian veteran Lesia Tsurenko in the first round of the Brisbane International.
Join The Roar for live scores and analysis from approximately 9:30pm (AEDT).
After missing the entire 2015 tennis season to pursue cricket, most notably with WBBL side the Brisbane Heat, Barty has returned with a vengeance in a wildly successful 2017.
Along with making the quarter-finals at three of the four Grand Slams in the doubles, including making the final at Roland Garros with long-time partner Casey Dellacqua, she won her first match at the Australian Open, progressing to the third round in the process, the effort seeing her crack the top 100 in the WTA rankings for the first time.
She then bested eventual Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza at the Birmingham Classic, making the final of that tournament, and reached the third round of the US Open, but the best was still to come.
At the Wuhan Open in September, Barty defeated top-10 players Johanna Konta, Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko, also taking out former World No.2 Agnieszka Radwanska, in a giant-killing run that saw her jump into the top 20 for the first time.
While she was defeated by Caroline Garcia in the final, her year-end ranking of 17th in the world is the highest rank by any Australian, and earned her a deserving John Newcombe Medal as the country’s finest tennis player for 2017.
Her opponent Tsurenko has had success in Brisbane before, reaching the semi-finals as a lucky loser back in 2013, and likewise had a career-best year.
After reaching the third round at Wimbledon, the Ukrainian reached a career-high ranking of world No. 29, and while she faded late to finish the year ranked 42nd in the world, she can still look back with pride on an excellent year.
She hasn’t tasted victory at the Australian Open since 2013, being knocked out in the first round in the 4 tournaments since, and a victory in Brisbane would give her plenty of confidence to bring to Melbourne Park.
Prediction
It’s hard to go past Barty here. The Queensland-born star in supreme form, has a home crowd on her side, and most significantly, has very few weaknesses in her game when playing as well as she is now.
Barty to kick off 2018 in style with a straight-sets win
Can the 21-year old take out the title in Brisbane on her way to another long run in Melbourne? Or will Tsurenko replicate her 2013 form and shock the crowd?
Tune into The Roar’s live coverage of the Brisbane International from around 9:30pm (AEDT), and don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.