ASH Barty wasted no time in her second round clash of the Australian Open, dominating the first set against Slovenian Polona Hercog to continue her strong form. The Barty cheer squad was out and about, with plenty to cheer about for the Aussie fan favourite who won in straight sets, 6-1 6-4.

Barty was on top from the get-go, consolidating the first game without breaking a sweat or even dropping a point, going on to be 3-0 up less than 10 minutes in. While Hercog won the fourth game back, Barty finished off the set in remarkable fashion in only 25 minutes.

Barty was clinical in the first set, especially off her serve with a 92 per cent winning rate to finish the set. Her timing was impeccable with speed to match, staying back off the base line majority of the time but picking her battles carefully to head to the net. For Hercog, the net was her own worst enemy early, with a strong effort but no cigar to gift Barty with double faults, racking up three in the first set alone. While Barty had the slower serve in comparison, she was hard to beat on her service games with her pinpoint accuracy well on show.

A sloppy second set from Barty saw Hercog well and truly work her way back into the match, winning her service games to prove she is not willing to go down without a fight. Barty had trouble breaking Hercog’s serve in comparison to the first set, unable to consolidate her strong form despite winning on 34 per cent of Hercog’s serve. That being said, Hercog was also unable to break Barry’s serve making for an intense contest with plenty of rallies forcing both players to work hard to win every point.

Hercog’s ball speed was what pushed Barty, with the Slovenian able to put plenty of pressure behind the ball to turn the tides and switch up direction, forcing Barty to run harder to reach the ball.

Barty did not back down, however, and while she missed some consistency in the second set she timed her break well, finding a break 5-4 after trailing all set to head into the last game of the set with a win at the end of the tunnel and running out 6-1 6-4 victor.