MELBOURNE – Ash Barty got things started as the Australian Open tuneup events resumed Friday following an unscheduled day off because of a COVID-19 case stemming from one of the tournament quarantine hotels.
A day after all matches in six tournaments were postponed so that 160 players could isolate and undergo testing, there were 70 matches on the order of play as organizers tried to cram all scheduled lead-in matches into three days before the year’s first major starts on Monday.
Top-ranked Barty got her first taste of the modified scoring system introduced to shorten matches in a disrupted schedule, dominating a match tiebreaker to beat Shelby Rogers 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 and move into Yarra Valley Classic semifinals.