Barty ekes out Adelaide title win as Rublev lifts second straight crown

Ashleigh Barty ended a nine-year Australian home title drought on Saturday with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska at the Adelaide International.

The world number one became the first Aussie woman to lift a trophy on a home court since Jarmila Wolfe won Hobart in 2011.

Barty beat 24th-ranked teenager Yastremska in 87 minutes at Memorial Drive to gain a boatload of confidence heading into Monday’s start of the Australian Open in Melbourne, where she is top seed.

Barty will take to the court at Rod Laver Arena on Monday night. “It’s going to be exciting and a fresh tournament... I have to start with my clean slate for the Australian Open, I’m looking forward to that first round,” she said.

Barty won the opening set against her 19-year-old opponent, losing just two points on serve and breaking three times. After starting the second set with a break, the Australian momentarily lost her edge, dropping serve for two all. But Barty kept up the pressure, earning three break points in the 11th game. One was enough after Yastremska put a backhand wide.

The next game Barty earned three match points and took the title when her opponent sent a return long over the baseline.

In the men’s draw, Andrey Rublev set a record of his own as the Russian crushed South African qualifier Lloyd Harris 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes.

Rublev, who lifted the Doha trophy last weekend, is the first man since Dominik Hrbaty in 2004 to win two titles in the first two weeks of a season.

The Russian has not lost a match since November -- 12 in a row -- and stands 8-0 this season.

Elsewhere at the Auckland Classic, it was the “tournament of revenge” for rising star Ugo Humbert who won his maiden ATP title beating Benoit Paire in a three-set thriller on Saturday.

In the all-French showdown, the unseeded Humbert held his nerve in the deciding tie-break of his first ATP final to beat the fifth seed 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 7-6 (7/5).

The 21-year-old Humbert, who a year ago was ranked outside the top 100, started the tournament at number 57 and the title should advance him well inside the top 50. Roger Federer might have won 20 Grand Slams and six Australian Open titles but the Swiss great on Saturday insisted he had “low expectations” at the first Major of the season.

The 38-year-old crowd favourite has yet to play a competitive match this year, opting out of the recent ATP Cup to spend more time with his family.

“I’ve had plenty of time to pace myself and do all the things I had to do to get ready. I hope it’s enough,” he added. “I know it’s a super-long road to victory. That’s why I got to take it one match at a time. My expectations are quite low.

“I’m excited to play Steve,” he said.

Meanwhile, defending Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka said Saturday that 2019 was the “toughest year of my life” after the Japanese ploughed through several coaches and suffered a major dip in form. The 22-year-old began last year in spectacular fashion, winning in Melbourne for back-to-back Grand Slam titles and soaring to the top of the world rankings.

But she then exited Roland Garros in the third round and Wimbledon in the first round, and her defence of her US Open crown similarly fell flat.

The Japanese roared back with titles in her native city of Osaka and then in Beijing in the autumn, and in December hired the Belgian Wim Fissette as her coach -- her fourth in less than a year.

The world number three, who faces Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic in her opener in Melbourne, said she was “in a better head space”.

Agence France-Presse