Barty to face Pegula in quarters

MELBOURNE, Jan 23: Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty booked her place in the 2022 Australian Open quarter-finals with a win over Amanda Anisimova, here on Sunday.

Top seed Barty beat 20-year-old Anisimova 6-4, 6-3 in a 74-minute clash. She will meet No 21 seed Jessica Pegula, who reached the last eight in Melbourne for the second straight season after defeating No 5 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-6(0), 6-3.

With this win, Barty's quest to become the first home women's champion at the Australian Open since Chris O'Neil in 1978 remains alive. In her previous second-week showings, she lost in the 2019 quarter-finals to Petra Kvitova, the 2020 semifinals to Sofia Kenin and the 2021 quarter-finals to Karolina Muchova.

During Sunday's outing, Barty's progress was not all smooth sailing. At times, she was outhit by bold drive volleys and down-the-line winners from Anisimova. She gave her younger opponent openings with a smattering of double faults (three, two of which came consecutively) and unforced errors (17, outweighed by 23 winners). 

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