By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, March 25, 2021
World No. 1 Ash Barty rallied from 2-5 down and saved a match point surviving qualifier Kristina Kucova 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in her Miami Open opener.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Scanning the strings of her Head racquet, Ash Barty looked like a woman searching for solutions staring down a 2-5 deficit in the final set today.
The world No. 1 relied on a stinging serve and stubborn will to find the ultimate answer.
More: After Arduous Trip, Barty Launches Adventurous Season
A defiant Barty denied a match point sparking a surge of five straight games to subdue 149th-ranked qualifier Kristina Kucova 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to survive a gripping Miami Open opener.
"Just never give up. Honestly you have to be in the fight to have a chance,"Barty said. "It's about trying to just chip away over and over. You know, matches like that are extremely fulfilling, I think, knowing that you have done the work over an extended period to kind of just get over the edge and just get that result that you're after.
"Today was much more about the fight than the result, but certainly happy now to be able to give myself another chance in a couple days' time to be able to go again."
Playing just her 12th match in the last 13 months, rust was evident as Barty sprayed 39 errors from her typically formidable forehand, struggled to attack Kucova's second serve and lacked some bite on her slice backhand.
The reigning Miami Open champion kept calm, continued to battle, fought off match point with Kucova serving at 5-4 and fired 15 aces against no double faults—including a pair of two-ace games down the stretch—to pull through a sticky stress test in two hours, 27 minutes.
"It was important in that match to stick to kind of working and trying to figure it out as I went," Barty told Tennis Channel's Prakash Amritraj afterward. "Obviously, I haven't played her before so it was something a bit new. Overall, just really happy I just never gave up and just gave myself a chance to stay in the hunt.
"Certainly there was a lot of physicality, obviously a lot of tactics as well. But mentally you need to stay in there to give yourself a chance. I was just really proud of myself that I was able to hang in there when maybe I was a bit loose with my tennis. I stayed really strong through my head and gave myself a chance to find my tennis in the end."
It was the top-seeded Aussie's first match outside of Australia since the 2020 Doha and came a few days after Barty and coach Craig Tyzzer took an arduous 45-hour journey from Brisbane to Miami that left her jet lagged. Had she lost this match, Barty likely would have lost her No. 1 ranking as second-ranked Naomi Osaka trails the Aussie by 471 points in the live rankings with the Miami champion earning 1,000 points.
The victory sets up a third-round clash of former French Open champions between Barty and 2017 Roland Garros title winner Jelena Ostapenko. Earlier, Ostapenko topped lucky loser Kirsten Flipkens 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
The sole Slovak woman in the field, Kucova beat American qualifier Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 last night and had a quick turnaround time before facing the 2019 Roland Garros champion today.
Facing a world No. 1 for the first time in her career, Kucova was not fazed by the challenge. Playing with two hands off both wings, Kucova began stepping into the court more frequently after dropping the first set.
Serving to stay in the second set, Barty came forward behind a slice but could not handle a dipping Kucova passing shot and nudged a backhand volley into the top of the tape to face set point. Pushed back by the depth of her opponent's drives, Barty sailed a forehand beyond the baseline to drop serve and the set.
Kucova converted both of her break points, seizing the 44-minute second set to force a decider. Though Barty cranked 10 aces against no double faults through the first two sets, she served just 47 percent and was losing the battle of court positioning against the 30-year-old Slovak.
Changing her clothes prior to the start of the decider, Kucova was growing in confidence with each passing game. Banging away at the Aussie's backhand wing, Kucova drew a wild backhand error down the line earning the first break of the final set for 3-1.
A frustrating aspect of this match for the Aussie was her inability to effectively attack the Slovak's sometime shallow second serve at crunch time. Barty overshot the mark with another forehand as Kucova backed up the break extending her lead to 4-1.
The top seed dug out of a 15-30 hole to force Kucova to serve out the biggest win of her career. Barty committed two poor backhand errors to fall into a 30-love hole, got back to 30-all, but dumped a slice backhand into net to hand Kucova match point.
Jumping on a weak second serve, Barty spun a forehand return down the line to deny match point then slid a forehand down the line breaking back for 4-5.
Slashing successive aces—her 12th and 13th of the match—helped Barty hold to level after 10 games.
Upset opportunities against a world No. 1 can be fleeting. Kucova couldn't consistently land her first serve in the following game as Barty broke again with a drop shot for 6-5.
Closure was complicated. Barty committed three sloppy errors including dumping a forehand drop shot into the bottom of the net to face triple break point as Kucova was one point from forcing a final-set tie breaker.
A stubborn Barty threw down two aces in a row followed by a fine backhand volley behind Kucova to draw even at deuce.
The 24-year-old Aussie drew an error for match point then whipped one final wide serve to close a committed comeback raising her 2021 record to 9-2 and her career mark in three-setters to 50-20.
"I am just enjoying the fact we have the opportunity to come back out here and play," Barty said. "A match like that today I think just reiterates how much I love this support and how much I love the battle and love the fight."
Barty tapped index finger against the side of her head in a sign of mental strength knowing she will need to lift her level against the hard-hitting Ostapenko.
"Jelena obviously has got one of the biggest games from that first strike, both off kind of her first ball after serve and particularly off the return, as well," Barty said. "It's a little bit of a different matchup to what we had today.
"Played her a couple of times. Yeah, it's going to be tough. I'm going to have to have my running shoes on and make sure I'm able to neutralize off that first ball as best I can to try and turn it back in my favor."