Beijing: World number one Ashleigh Barty said she produced some of her best tennis this year as she battled into the China Open semifinals Friday with a gutsy victory over Petra Kvitova.
The Australian came from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and plays Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in the last four in Beijing.
“From my opinion, that was one of the highest-quality matches I played all year,” said the 23-year-old, the reigning French Open champion.
“Petra always has a way of bringing out the best in me, she really does.
“From both of us, I think the level was incredible.
“Regardless of winning or losing, I think I’d be sitting here with the exact same perspective, kind of the same feeling of the match afterwards.”
This was the sixth meeting between Barty and two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova, with the former winning only one of her previous encounters against the Czech.
Barty, who had strapping on her left calf, was under the cosh immediately in the deciding set after seventh-ranked Kvitova broke her first service game.
But Barty grabbed the break back and, with the clock ticking past two hours on court, broke Kvitova again for a decisive 5-3 lead.
Murray crashes out
Andy Murray went down fighting in the men’s quarterfinals on Friday as the former world number one lost 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) to top seed Dominic Thiem.
The 32-year-old Briton, battling to get back to a semblance of his best following career-saving hip surgery in January, was defeated in just under two hours after threatening an unlikely, late comeback.
A third match in four days in the Chinese capital proved a step too far for Murray, who looked exhausted after a three-set victory on Wednesday against Cameron Norrie.
Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner, had the Beijing crowd firmly behind him against the Austrian Thiem, ranked fifth in the world to his opponent’s 503rd.
But Murray lost his first service game to go behind from the outset, putting himself under pressure immediately.
At times there were shades of the Murray that topped the world rankings in 2016, but the second set started in the same way as the first, the Briton having his serve broken.
Murray, who says that he now has no pain in his hip, looked down and out as Thiem served for the match.
But he does not know how to quit and broke Thiem to make it 5-5 in the second set, then went up 6-5, before Thiem forced the tie break. He carried that momentum to victory. The 26-year-old Thiem plays Karen Khachanov in the last four after the Russian fourth seed defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy in three sets. — AFP
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