Australia’s Ashleigh Barty raced to her fifth title of the season with a 6-3 6-1 win over Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann in the final of the Western & Southern Open.
The world No.1 Barty has lost just three matches on hard courts this season, so it comes as no surprise that she defeated the 76th-ranked Teichmann, even though the 24-year-old had eliminated two Top 5 players this week in Cincinnati (Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova) and boasted a 4-0 record against Top 10 opposition in 2021.
From 3-3 in the first set, Barty won eight consecutive games to earn an insurmountable 6-3 5-0 lead which quickly translated into a winning scoreline for the Australian.
En route to this WTA 1000 title, Barty defeated all her opponents in straight sets: Heather Watson, Victoria Azarenka, Barbora Krejcikova, Angelique Kerber, and then wildcard Teichmann.
After being sidelined for eight months because of the pandemic, Barty returned like a thunderstorm, winning titles at the Yarra Valley Classic, Miami Open, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Wimbledon, and now the Western & Southern Open. The 25-year-old is a 2021 WTA Tour leader in both the number of titles and the number of match wins (40). Moreover, her win-loss record against Top 20 players is impressive: 14-1.
