Ash Barty suffers shock exit from Wimbledon 2019

World number one and French Open champion Ash Barty has been stunned by world number 55 Alison Riske, who has made it to her first Grand Slam quarter final.

Barty came into today on a 15 match winning streak as she backed up her Roland Garros title with a win at the Birmingham Classic last month. And the form looked to continue as she broke the American Riske’s serve early on to take a 4-1 lead. Despite being broken at 4-2, the Australian 23 year old went back ahead instantly to close the set 6-3.

Riske had won their only previous encounter, in 2016 at the ITF tournament in Eastbourne and she had every intention of winning the second. The 29 year old, playing her ninth Wimbledon, broke the number one seed’s serve to gain a second set 3-1 lead. When Barty was serving to stay in the set, Riske had no intention of having to serve it out, and broke the Aussie serve again to win the second 6-2.

The deciding set saw dominance on serve, with both women holding to 3-3 despite Ash Barty losing a break point along the way. But at 4-3 up it was the lady from Pennsylvania that got the all important break of serve, which put her in position to serve for a place in her first Grand Slam quarter final.

Riske herself put together a 10 match winning streak over the grass court season in preparation for SW19. She won back to back titles in Surbiton and S-Hertogenbosch, before facing a surprise first round defeat at the Mallorca Open to world number 126 Paula Badosa Gibert of Spain. She was however able to serve out and shock the world number one and secure her place in the Wimbledon quarter finals.

Next up for Riske will be either Serena Williams or Carla Suarez Navarro. She has never faced her compatriot Williams, and shares a 1-1 record against the Spaniard.

Enjoy Wimbledon even more with our exclusive, 164 page, ‘Guide to Wimbledon 2019‘

To find out how to get tickets for Wimbledon this year read our 9 point guide here

For all the latest Wimbledon news before, during and after the tournament make sure you bookmark our ‘Wimbledon News’ section here

If you can’t visit the tournament then do the next best thing and read our guide on how to watch Wimbledon on television

To read more amazing articles like this you can explore Tennishead magazine here or you can subscribe for free to our email newsletter