Wuhan: Australia’s Ashleigh Barty pulled off a major upset against former world number one Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open on Thursday, downing the number three seed 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2).
Barty, ranked 37th in the world, failed to convert three match points in the third set but dominated the deciding tiebreak to bag her first ever win against a top-five player.
The 21-year-old Barty had already seen off Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded nine, and Johanna Konta, the fifth seed in a dream run in the humid Chinese city.
“I played a really good match and I’m just happy to come through at the end,” she said.
“It was really important for me to look after my service games and obviously try and make inroads into Karolina’s games and I was able to do that.”
After Pliskova’s exit, there are now just three seeds remaining in the competition.
The Czech, who is the world number four but who spent eight weeks at number one this year, had looked strong in the earlier rounds as she breezed past China’s Zhang Shuai and Wang Qiang.
Barty will face either world number one Garbine Muguruza or Jelena Ostapenko, seeded eight, in the semifinals.
Chinese great Li Na backed Serena Williams to pull off a quickfire return to tennis after the birth of her first child — but said there was no way she could have rushed back to the sport.
Williams, 36, has spoken of her “outrageous” plans to defend her title at the Australian Open in January, less than five months after giving birth to her baby daughter on September 1.
Li, who announced she was pregnant two months after retiring in 2014, said she wouldn’t have been able to leave her own young daughter, adding that she had probably only hit a tennis ball 10 times since quitting the sport and becoming a mother.
“Serena can fix everything,” Li said, referring to the challenge of being a tennis-playing parent. “But if I think about myself, I couldn’t do that. With a baby so young, I couldn’t leave them.”
Asked if she missed tennis, the two-time Grand Slam-winner told reporters at the Wuhan Open that she hankered after the “fight and competition” but that she had left that side of herself behind.
“Now I just follow,” said Li, whose daughter is now two and who also has a baby son.
Other former stars have wondered whether Williams, a 23-time major-winner, would be able to regain top form so soon after having her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian.
Kim Clijsters, who retired for two years and became a mother before returning to win the 2009 US Open, said it depends on “how your body reacts — everybody reacts different in those situations”.
American Mary Joe Fernandez also said she could not have played as a mother to young kids but that “Serena is an exception to a lot of rules”.
But Williams’s good friend Caroline Wozniacki said the new mother remained “focused” on her comeback.
“I think she’s going to do a strong comeback but I think at the same time she’s enjoying being a mum as well and getting that whole experience. I think it’s very special,” Wozniacki said in Wuhan.
Li, a native of Wuhan and a global ambassador for her hometown tournament, appeared uncertain as to whether she would be happy if her children grew up to become tennis players.
“I would be happy of course, the sport can change you a lot, it can make a child stronger,” she said, adding that the constant travelling is “very tough”.
“It’s not easy to continue for so many years, to do the same thing and no time with family,” she said.
