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The 2021 Championship at Wimbledon is coming to a close and the top seed is headed into the finals. Ashleigh Barty defeated No. 25 seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-6 on Thursday morning to secure a spot in the final round. She will face No. 8 seed Karolína Plíšková who beat No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka in three sets 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The finals are set for Saturday morning on ESPN.
Barty will be competing for her second career Grand Slam singles title. She won the 2019 French Open. Prior to this year, Barty had never advanced past the fourth round at Wimbledon.
She reached the finals while only giving up a single set in the process. In the first round, she lost the second set to Carla Suárez Navarro before advancing in three sets. Since then, the only seeded opponent she’s faced is No. 14 Barbora Krejčíková, who she beat in the fourth round. She defeated Ajla Tomljanović in the quarterfinals before beating Kerber in the semifinals.
Plíšková has also only given up one set in reaching the finals. She had been unblemished prior to the semifinals. Her match against Sabalenka was the first time she faced a seeded opponent in the tournament.
These two have met seven times over their respective careers. Barty has a 5-2 record against Plíšková. Barty won their last meeting, which was a three-set win in the 2021 Stuttgart Open. Plíšková does have a 2018 fourth round US Open win over Barty.