Ash Barty was praised for her stylish response to get the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the clay court season in Europe.
Following her singles victory on Wednesday, Barty was back at the Stuttgart Open partnering Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady for the doubles competition.
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The pair beat the Chinese pair of Yifan Xu and Shuai Zhang 6-4 6-3 and reached the semi-finals.
But when speaking to the media afterwards, Barty was asked if she had already received the vaccine.
The issue has been a subject of controversy on the ATP and WTA Tour, although Barty announced she would get vaccinated when it was his time.
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To the surprise of some, a number of tennis players at the Miami Open expressed hesitancy about the vaccine.
This included Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina.
But following the question to the world No.1, Barty offered a classy response to her fellow Australians after announcing she had been vaccinated.
“We are looking at different avenues to try to get vaccinated without jumping the queue in Australia,” Barty said, according to New York Times tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg.
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“To see what our options were and we couldn’t get much of an answer before we left in March.
“We were able to get vaccinated, like many other players, thanks to the Tour and that they had organized through a certain pharmacy that had extras, and it was important for me to know that those who were most vulnerable were able to get it first.
“It was nice to know we had that little layer of protection.”
Barty was praised for her honest response.
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Barty’s rival sends warning to Stuttgart
Karolina Pliskova delivered a warning to Barty by hitting a personal best 21 aces en route to setting up a riveting quarter-final with the Australian world No.1 in Stuttgart.
The hard-hitting Czech battled through a grueling indoor clay-court competition at the Porsche Grand Prix before finally getting the better of former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in a three-set marathon on Thursday.
Former US Open finalist Pliskova came back from a set down and hit 10 aces in the final set alone before winning 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-3 to set up a seventh meeting with Barty.
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“I like spending time on this pitch,” smiles the Czech after having to put off Ostapenko’s fireworks for almost two and a half hours.
Pliskova even ended up throwing a racket furiously at one point, later wryly pointing out, “It always helps me when I break a racket.”
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