Ashleigh Barty v Jessica Pegula Betting Tips [25 January 2022]

The dream for Ashleigh Barty is to finally win her home Grand Slam. The world number one takes on 21st seed Jessica Pegula in the last eight of the Australian Open. The winner takes on either Barbora Krejcikova (fourth seed and the second highest seed left in the tournament) or resurgent Madison Keys. Barty is in her fourth Australian Open quarter final but has only once made it to the last four and never the final. Barty missed the final three months of 2021 but has made a strong start to the new year. The Australian won the first Adelaide International title with some impressive wins, including beating Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin, Iga Swiatek and in the final, Elena Rybakina. All four of her matches in this tournament have been won in straight sets with only 15 games lost.

Jessica Pegula has been rising up the rankings over the past year. This time last year, the American was down at 64th but is now 15th in the live rankings. A win over Barty would see her go up to 11th place. Her run to the Australian Open quarter finals is a big improvement after losing in her first match in two warm-up events. It's the second year in a row that Pegula has reached the last eight of this Grand Slam. Now she has to build on that in the other three as she's yet to get past round three in the other Grand Slams. After her poor warm-up, more problems came in the first round of this tournament. Pegula had to come from a set down to beat Anhelina Kalinina. The fourth round saw her beat Maria Sakkari (ranked fifth) in straight sets. Her only meeting against Barty was at the 2019 French Open that the Australian won on her way to winning the title. Go for Barty to win this in straight sets.