Ashleigh Barty was in ruthless mood at Wimbledon on Thursday as she raced into the third round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium.
Van Uytvanck reached the last 16 here last year but was overwhelmed by the world No 1, who wrapped up victory in 55 minutes.
Controversially scheduled on Court No 2, Barty’s only blip came when she served for the match at 5-2 but she broke back immediately to extend her grand-slam winning streak to nine matches, having won her first slam title at the French Open last month.
The Australian said: “It was a really clean match overall, not too many errors across the whole match. I had a bit of a blemish trying to serve out the match but am really happy with today.”
Barty took the first five games before Van Uytvanck, ranked 58 but who has been as high as 37 in the past, held serve to get on the board but the No 1 seed quickly finished off the first set.
Van Utyvanck achieved a moral victory when she broke Barty for the first time in the eighth game of the second set but the 23-year-old broke immediately to finish off the match. She now faces Britain’s Harriet Dart, who beat Beatriz Haddad Maia, conqueror of the former champion Garbiñe Muguruza in round one.
