After she secured a quarter finals position in women’s singles on Sunday, Croatian tennis player Mirjana Lučić-Baroni repeated the same success on Monday in singles, winning 6-4, 6-2 against 21-year-old American Jennifer Brady
Almost 18 years after making it to the Grand Slam quarter finals for the first time in Wimbledon, defeated in semi-finals by German Steffi Graf, Mirjana Lučić-Baroni has once again joined the last eight players to compete for the Australian Open title. Even her partially injured left leg and 13 year younger opponent were not an obstacle to stop the Makarska native on her incredible journey, Jutarnji List wrote on January 23, 2017.
From the first to the final point in the 70-minute match with a younger and less experienced opponent, Lučić-Baroni imposed herself as the tennis player who will decide the outcome of the fourth round match in the Margaret Court Arena. With a series of unstoppable hits Lučić-Baroni took advantage in the seventh game of one of seven double errors of her opponent for the first break which was enough to win the first set.
After exchanging breaks at the start of the second set, the 34-year-old Croat with an American address again began to line up great shots, using pressure on the first serve to force the 21-year-old Brady into two more double errors in the fifth game and claimed another break to completely break the competitor. A line of five consecutive games was enough for Mirjana to overpower Brady and make it for the first time in her career into the Australian Open quarter finals in singles.
The Croatian veteran ended the duel with 35 winners, 24 more than her opponent, a compensation for twice as many unforced errors (24-12) than Brady. Lučić-Baroni used four of seven break opportunities, while Brady had 1 in 6.
She is due to play in the women’s doubles quarter finals on Monday morning, in pair with German Fed Cup team member Andrea Petković, while the following day she will try to make it to the semi-finals in singles, playing against the winner of the match between Czech Karolina Pliškova and Australian Darija Gavrilova.
