Wimbledon 2021 tennis - Top seed Ashleigh Barty beats Anna Blinkova to reach third round in style

ByDan Quarrell

Updated 01/07/2021 at 14:36 GMT

Australia's Ash Barty has not previously progressed beyond the fourth round at SW19, which she achieved two years ago, and will be looking to make a strong run into the finals in the second week. She continued her impressive progress in this year's tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Anna Blinkova to reach the third round.

Top seed Ash Barty had to battle but she still comfortably secured her place in the third round of Wimbledon with a straight-sets win over Anna Blinkova.

The Australian looked in very fine form as she rattled through both sets for the cost of seven games in exactly 90 minutes on Centre Court.

The world number one has not previously progressed beyond the fourth round at SW19, which she achieved two years ago, and will be looking to make a strong run into the finals in the second week.

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Barty was made to work very hard for almost every point by Blinkova as she took the opening set 6-4 with a crucial break of serve making the difference - and she went one better in the second set by only conceding three games to the Russian.

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The 25-year-old will next take on Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the third round after she overcame Coco Vandeweghe of the USA in three sets in their second-round match.

"This is a beautiful court - for me, grass court tennis is where it's at," Barty said in her on-court interview. "I wish we could play the whole year on it.

"I just love it and it felt like a long two years [away] but I certainly enjoyed being back out here today.

Ashleigh Barty

Image credit: Getty Images

"We had to do a lot of homework to try to figure out her [Blinkova's] game. She played a great match today - a few points here and there and it could have been a different story.

"I'm happy to be able to get through and get another opportunity to play.

"It's been a great year so far - it's really nice to have the fans in the stands again and Wimbledon wouldn't be the same place without you."

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Watch daily evening highlights of all the best action from Wimbledon on Eurosport 1, plus the men's and women's finals live on Eurosport 2. All coverage is also available to stream via eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.

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