Unseeded American Danielle Collins sent an out of sorts Ashleigh Barty crashing out of the Adelaide International

Adelaide, Australia, Feb 24 (AFP/APP): Unseeded American Danielle Collins sent an out of sorts Ashleigh Barty crashing out of the Adelaide International in the second round on Wednesday.

Collins seized on some poor serving from the world number one to claim a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win in just 65 minutes. It was Collins’ first win over Barty in three encounters and her first win against a current world number one. Barty started strongly, breaking Collins’ first service game and opening up a 3-1 lead, but the Australian’s first serve deserted her and Collins got back on terms, then broke Barty twice to claim the first set.

Barty broke again at the start of the second, but once again Collins came back, then broke at 4-4 before holding her own serve to reach the quarter-finals, where she will play Poland’s reigning French Open champion Iga Swiatek. “I feel really comfortable playing here,” Collins said. “I didn’t have the crowd on my side today but I still loved playing in front of so many fans. It just makes it such a fun atmosphere.” Swiatek was untroubled against Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis, winning 6-1, 6-3.