Top-ranked Ash Barty is breezing through the Australian Open draw so far. Things could get a lot more interesting soon enough.
Barty extended her streak of service holds to 48 games and moved into the third round at Melbourne Park for the sixth consecutive year by beating 142nd-ranked qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in under an hour Tuesday in Rod Laver Arena.
Barty dropped just one game in her first-round match, which also took less than an hour, as she bids to become the first Australian woman since 1978 to win the country's Grand Slam tournament.
She is already a two-time major champion, with trophies at the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last year.
Next up for Barty will be a matchup against another Italian, 30th-seeded Camila Giorgi. Win that, and Barty could end up in a fourth-round showdown against defending champion Naomi Osaka.
Eighth-seeded Paula Badosa has moved into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan in Rod Laver Arena.
Badosa won the title at a Sydney tuneup tournament last week, when she put together back-to-back match wins in Australia for the first time.
In other early second-round results on Day 3 of the year's first tennis Grand Slam event, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka beat Jil Teichmann 6-1, 6-2, and No. 30 Camila Giorgi beat Tereza Martincova 6-2, 7-6 (2).
Top-ranked Ash Barty, aiming to be the first Australian woman to win the home championship since 1978, was playing Lucia Bronzetti on the main court at Melbourne Park.
