Comeback kid Ash Barty showed there was plenty of life in her second tennis coming on Wednesday night as she delivered a major scare to Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber at the Brisbane International.
The German world No.1 was forced to dig deep to survive a second-round fright at Pat Rafter Arena, eventually winning 6-3 2-6 6-3 in one hour 44 minutes, after being on the ropes.
Barty defied her world ranking of No.271 to rip through the second set in 33 minutes and have all the momentum in front of a raucous crowd.
A state Twenty20 cricketer just 12 months ago with the Brisbane Heat, she slugged it out with the dual grand slam champion and made her look second-rate in the one-sided second set.
But Kerber lifted in the decider, breaking the local favourite immediately before keeping her foot down to book a quarterfinal encounter with sixth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.
While disappointed at the result but pleased with her display, Barty promises to propel herself back into the top 100, and higher, in quick time with her freewheeling style of play.
She hit winners from all parts of the court and it was just her consistency which let herself down at times during the first and third sets, as well as Kerber’s superior movement.
Rediscovering her love of the game under new coach Craig Tyzzer has put the 20-year-old back on the path to being one of the country’s best players on the WTA.
Doubles partner Casey Dellacqua rated Barty the most talented Australian woman to emerge in the past decade and on her Brisbane form she showed she can also do damage as a wildcard at the Australian Open in less than a fortnight.
Barty rated the encounter the perfect start to the year for her, especially being forced to play aggressively to challenge Kerber.
“I’m really really pleased with the form, a bit disappointed we didn’t win but very good things came out of it,” she said.
“It’s the start of good things to come hopefully. I’m a more developed player this time around.”
Kerber was full of praise for the 20-year-old and expected her to quickly rise up the rankings if she stayed injury free.
“Working hard and playing like she did tonight I’m sure she will have great results,” she said. “She played so well straight from the first point tonight.”