{"id":5408,"date":"2013-01-22T12:49:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T04:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=5408"},"modified":"2013-01-22T12:49:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T04:49:18","slug":"a-near-perfect-mix-of-youth-and-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2013\/01\/22\/a-near-perfect-mix-of-youth-and-experience","title":{"rendered":"A near perfect mix of youth and experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australian duo Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty have marched into a doubles Grand Slam quarterfinal today after a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory over fourteenth seeds Natalie Grandin from South Africa and Czech Vladimira Uhlirova.<\/p>\n

Despite a few hiccups towards the end of the first set, the pair was in control of their own destiny for most of the match but afterwards, admitted to having struggled a little with their own high expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we had a very good win last round in beating the number three seeds,\u201d said Dellacqua. \u201cSo we probably put more pressure on ourselves to play perfect tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The swirling breeze out on Margaret Court Arena didn\u2019t help matters either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remained calm enough to get through those issues and win though and that\u2019s all that matters in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve got a quarterfinal to play which is just so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear to everyone that watches them play that the pair enjoys each other\u2019s company, but they each have a great deal of respect for what the other brings to the table as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been good mates,\u201d Dellacqua said. \u201cSo I thought, hey, why not play doubles with the next superstar?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ll take the Grand Slam champion,\u201d Barty responded with a grin.<\/p>\n

The strike rate since then has been almost perfect, with only one loss in three tournaments to date \u2013 and even holding match point in that one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just go out and have fun,\u201d said Barty.<\/p>\n

Dellacqua agreed but added, \u201cTo be honest, of all the doubles players I have ever played with, I just know that Ash has got my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knows the doubles court. She makes her returns, makes her serves, and does all the basic things well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she makes me feel young, so I\u2019ll take that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, there is over ten years between them, but both see that as a real advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cCasey\u2019s had so much experience,\u201d said Barty. \u201cSo when the time comes, she can calm me down, and at other times, I can just say \u2018let\u2019s have a bit of fun here and give it a rip\u2019\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven today,\u201d explained Dellacqua. \u201cAsh got me to play half-decent when I wasn\u2019t really feeling that good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow, a 16-year-old is able to make me play good tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the focus turns to their next match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to just finish this week off as best we can,\u201d said Dellacqua. \u201cKeep swinging and keep doing the small things well and let\u2019s just see where it takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be here in the quarterfinals is just unreal,\u201d said Barty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a really good chance to go even further and we\u2019ve just got to get out there and give it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair faces Russian Anastasia Pavlyunchenkova and Czech Lucie Safarova on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In other Australian news, the weekend saw losses to veteran Paul Hanley, who went down in his third round doubles match with American Eric Butorac to Spanish third seeds Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-2 7-5.<\/p>\n

Hanley was also unlucky in his first round mixed doubles affair where he teamed with Zimbabwean Cara Black to bow out to fourth seeds Max Mirnyi and Liezel Huber 6-3 6-2.<\/p>\n

Anastasia Rodionova didn\u2019t have a happy weekend either, losing to fifth seeds Mahesh Bhupati and Nadia Petrova 6-4 6-2 in her opening round of mixed doubles with Frenchman Jean-Julien Rojer before seventh seeds Nuria Llangostera Vives and Jie Zheng defeated her and Cara Black 7-5 6-2 in her third round of doubles.<\/p>\n

The only other remaining Australians are Matthew Ebden and Jarmila Gajdosova who play second seeds Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina in a second round mixed doubles contest tomorrow night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian duo Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty have marched into a doubles Grand Slam quarterfinal today after a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory over fourteenth seeds Natalie Grandin from South Africa and Czech Vladimira Uhlirova. Despite a few hiccups towards the end of the first set, the pair was in control of their own destiny for most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}