Ashleigh Barty is already moving on from her loss

After the season that Ashleigh Barty has had, the women’s No. 2 seed wasn’t all that distraught after she was beaten by the No. 18 seed, Qiang Wang, 6-2, 6-4, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Barty, a 23-year-old Australian, has won three times on Tour this season, including her first Grand Slam victory at the French Open in May. She won at least three matches in each of the season’s first three Grand Slams, including a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open.

But she couldn’t outlast Wang, as the 27-year-old from China advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal to face the also-victorious Serena Williams.

“It’s frustrating now,” Barty said. “Give me an hour and I’ll be right. It’s an opportunity, it’s a new day tomorrow. Just because we’ve had a tough hour and a half on the court, it doesn’t reflect on the year that I’ve had or the couple of weeks I’ve had here in New York.”

Making the loss a little easier to take for Barty was the fact that she was already into the third round in doubles with partner Victoria Azarenka. Barty is the defending U.S. Open doubles champion, winning a year ago with American partner CoCo Vandeweghe.

But Vandeweghe has dealt with knee and foot injuries, forcing Barty to look for a new partner and she got together at the Australian Open with Azarenka — currently the No. 9 seed in singles and lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the first round.

“Knowing what it was like last year to be able to lift the trophy in doubles was really cool,” Barty said. “To be able to have another opportunity to do that now, still being able to play in doubles, is a bonus.”

Now the tall task of facing Williams is left for Wang, who wasn’t entirely sure if she was going to be up to the task.

“I don’t know,” Wang said when asked if she has confidence going against the 23-time Grand Slam champ, who beat No. 22 Petra Martic Sunday afternoon. “I’ll see.”

It will be very difficult for Wang — who goes by “Q” — to match Williams’ power, but she did display a terrific knack for defending against Barty. With quick cuts and good court coverage, Wang frustrated Barty by keeping her back on the baseline and pushing her into making 39 unforced errors.

“There were times where I pressed, and I did miss by big margins,” Barty said. “Q also forced me to do that with her depth control a lot of the time.”

Wang is now the third woman from China to make the U.S. Open quarterfinals and the first since Peng Shuai in 2014. She said that her family at home stayed awake into the early-morning hours to watch the match, and she received many congratulatory messages after the victory.

But now with Williams on tap, Wang is going to have to play her best to keep this ride going.

“I’m really mentally strong today,” Wang said. “Just keep going.”

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