After snatching back her World No.1 ranking, Ash Barty is now just two wins away from becoming the first woman in 12 years to win back-to-back US Open doubles titles.
Australia’s tennis superstar on Tuesday took a giant stride towards notching another major milestone in her incredible 2019 season.
She and Victoria Azarenka powered into the US Open last four with a 2-6 7-5 6-1 comeback win over top seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
Barty teamed with American Coco Vandeweghe to topple Babos and Mladenovic in last year’s final at Flushing Meadows.
That breakthrough earned Barty her maiden Grand Slam title after she’d lost all four major finals in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York with fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua.
Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy was the last player to achieve the feat of back-to-back US Open doubles titles, doing so in 2006 and 2007 with Russians Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina.
Set to regain her world No.1 singles ranking next week, 23-year-old Barty and Azarenka will play either Viktoria Kuzmova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich or third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, fellow Aussie Sam Stosur has reached the Open Mixed semis alongside partner Rajeev Ram and stands just two victories away from a fourth Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
AAP
