Barty beats Kerber to reach sixth final of season at Cincinnati Masters, Medvedev advances

World number one Ashleigh Barty reached her sixth final of the season on Saturday as the Australian defeated Angelique Kerber 6-2, 7-5 at the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Masters.

The top-seeded Aussie, who has led the ranking table for the past 82 weeks, needed an hour and a quarter to move into Sunday’s title match, surpassing her semi-final showing from 2019.

Barty will play for the trophy on Sunday against the winner of a later match between Swiss wild card Jil Teichmann -- who beat good friend and Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals — and Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova, more than a year and a half without a title.

Against Kerber, Barty increased her lead in the series between multiple Grand Slam winners to 4-2 as she duplicated a Wimbledon semi-final victory from last month.

Barty produced a dozen aces as she broke Kerber five times. Her 39 match wins this year nudge her one ahead of Aryna Sabalenka on the WTA list.

A question mark throughout 2021 has been how Barty will hold up physically and mentally in what is an unusually tough year for a player who normally builds in chunks of time to recharge at home. But she’s even taken that in stride, and this week talked about how she used the Olympic experience as her opportunity to reset.

Earlier, Daniil Medvedev took quick revenge on Friday for his Olympic loss to Pablo Carreno Busta, with the top seed delivering a crushing 6-1, 6-1 verdict.

The Russian world number two had it all his way into the semi-finals with a 56-minute rout, which ended on the Spaniard’s double-fault.

“I was feeling great during the match. In these conditions you try to win the match as fast as possible, especially against Carreno Busta, who can catch fire at any moment and start getting you into long rallies,” Medvedev said.

“I tried to keep pushing him and I am really happy I managed to do it.”

Medvedev, last week’s Toronto champion, won his eighth match in a row as he prepares for a final four contest against compatriot Andrey Rublev.

Fourth seed Rublev defeated France’s Benoit Paire 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 with the Russian advancing to his fourth Masters 1000 quarter-final in six tournaments this season.

Sefanos Tsitsipas, the second seed, had to lift after Felix Auger-Aliassime saved two match points late in the second set.

But the Greek did just that to post a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 win for his ninth semi-final of the season.

“Things got tough in the second set and I had to find different solutions. I stepped in with aggression in the third,” he said.

“It took a lot of patience to find my opportunities in the third set. But I was determined and I didn’t let go.”

Norway’s Casper Ruud, a wizard on clay this summer with three titles in three weeks, was taken apart by Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 as the top four men’s seeds took their places in the semis.

Medvedev has won all four tour matches against Rublev, including the quarters here in 2019 when Medvedev went on to win the title.

“I’m happy to play against him, because it’s a nice challenge for me to see what I need to improve,” Rublev said.

The fairytale story for wild card Teichmann continued with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Tokyo Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, a fellow Swiss.

“Everything went right, I felt good from the beginning,” Teichmann said. “I served well, defended well, it all worked out.”

The Swiss will play for the final against Karolina Pliskova, who put out Paula Badosa when the Spaniard retired trailing 7-5, 2-0 with a right shoulder injury.

Pliskova has never faced Teichmann, whose variety, strong serve, and lefty craft have left Naomi Osaka and Belinda Bencic befuddled this week.

Pliskova will once again need to keep her head and quickly solve the tactical problems the Swiss presents.

Agencies