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MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty is breezing through the Australian Open. Things could get a lot more interesting soon enough.
Barty extended her streak of service holds to 48 games and moved into the third round at Melbourne Park for the sixth consecutive year by beating 142nd-ranked qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in under an hour Tuesday in Rod Laver Arena.
Barty dropped just one game in her first-round match as she bids to become the first Australian woman since 1978 to win the country’s Grand Slam tournament.
She is already a two-time major champion, with trophies at the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last year.
Next up for Barty will be a matchup against another Italian, 30th-seeded Camila Giorgi, who beat Tereza Martincova 6-2, 7-6 (2). Win that, and Barty could end up in a fourth-round showdown against defending champion Naomi Osaka.
In other early second-round results on Day 3, eighth-seeded Paula Badosa moved into the third round with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan in Rod Laver Arena.
Badosa won the title at a Sydney tuneup tournament last week, when she put together back-to-back match wins in Australia for the first time.
Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka beat Jil Teichmann 6-1, 6-2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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