Melbourne: Women's world number one Ash Barty said she hopes holding the Australian Open with spectators back in the stands will "bring a smile" to the faces of tennis fans around the world.
"I hope it's bringing a smile to their face, knowing there's some entertainment, some sport to watch. Everyone in the world is in a bit of a unique situation depending on where they're living. I know that obviously every single day things can change quite rapidly as it has over the last 12 months with this pandemic," she said.
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"It almost seems like every 24 hours there's a change somewhere around the world. All in all hopefully at the moment everyone is as safe as they can possibly be, then they can enjoy the fact that we're able to play, we have the opportunity to play down here in Australia. I know as a playing group, we're very grateful for that," she added.
Barty spoke after grinding out a 6-1 7-6 (9-7) win over Fed Cup teammate Danka Kovinic on Thursday to reach the third round.
After cruising through the first set, Barty stumbled while leading 5-2 in the second before closing out the match in a tiebreaker.
Barty said some ups and downs are to be expected after a year away from the game and she dismissed any concerns over a heavily taped left thigh that seemed to bother her during the match.
