Barty to face Yastremska in Adelaide final, Rublev takes on Harris

World number one Ashleigh Barty will warm up for the Australian Open with a final at the Adelaide International after a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) comeback win over Danielle Collins on Friday.

The Australian, whose matches have been 5,000-strong sellouts all week at Memorial Drive, will face Dayana Yastremska on Saturday for the title.

Ukrainian teenager Yastremska defeated her third top-20 opponent in a row with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

The men’s final will be a contest between in-form Andrey Rublev and South African Lloyd Harris, who defeated fellow qualifier Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.

Rublev is the first man since 2004 to play finals in the first two weeks of a season after the Doha champion outlasted Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4 thriller which took a shade over three hours.

Barty took a while to get going against 27th-ranked American Collins who dominated the opening set. But the second was a different story, with top seed Barty quickly finding her game to level the match. The third set went to a tie-break after the players traded breaks of serve.

Barty lost a 4-2 lead in the breaker, but won on her second match point as a Collins return clipped the top of the net.

“I worked hard tonight, and we got the result that we’re after,” she said. “I felt I had a lot of clarity with what I wanted to do.

“Danielle has the ability to take the match out of your hands a little bit.”

Meanwhile, unseeded Ugo Humbert toppled big-serving John Isner on Friday to make his first ATP final and set up an all-French showdown with Benoit Paire at the ATP Auckland Classic.

Humbert attacked Isner at his strongest point, the serve, on his way to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 victory, while fifth-seed Paire beat Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.

“I will enjoy playing Ugo in the final, it’s something special between French guys,” a relieved Paire after settling down to calmly take his deciding set after a prolonged mid-match outburst.

The 21-year-old Humbert, who had called his quarter-final win over second seed Denis Shapovalov the biggest victory of his career, went one better to master Isner’s powerful serve and make his maiden final. Although Isner managed 12 aces, it was down on his tournament average 17, and when he did not beat Humbert with his first serve he struggled to win the point.

Humbert had never progressed past the semi-finals before and lost to Isner the one time they had met previously, at the Newport semi-finals six months ago.

Elsewhere, at the ongoing Hobart International, Sania Mirza continued her dream comeback to the WTA circuit when on Friday she entered the women’s doubles final.

Mirza, back from a two-year absence from the tour after having her baby, paired with Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok to win their semi-final clash over Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek, 7-6(3), 6-2, and move into the summit clash.

Mirza and Kichenok will now face the second-seeded Chinese pair of Zhang Shuai and Peng Shuai on Saturday.

Andy Murray meanwhile on Thursday said he would have to further delay his comeback after failing to shake off a pelvic injury.

The 32-year-old former world number one, who hasn’t played since the Davis Cup Finals in Spain in November, had pencilled in a return at either Montpellier in France or the Dutch city of Rotterdam next month.

“I don’t want to rush anything or put a timeline on my recovery,” three-time major winner Murray was quoted as saying by British media.

“I’m going to listen to my body and step back on the court to compete when the time is right.”

Agence France-Presse