Proud Ngarigo woman Ashleigh Barty's fine form in the lead-up to the French Open has continued with a 10th consecutive victory.
The world No.9 defeated American Danielle Collins 6-1 1-6 6-1 to advance to the third round of the Madrid Open for the first time.
Barty has taken to the red clay in the Spanish capital in her first tournament since claiming the Miami Open for the biggest title of her career in late March and winning all three of her matches in the Fed Cup semi-final, including both singles.
After dominating the first set against Collins, Barty found herself in trouble in the second before she rallied to close out Monday's match in an hour and 25 minutes.
Barty blasted 18 winners but threw in 19 unforced errors during the topsy-turvy encounter.
The 23-year-old fired five aces but only made 55 per cent of her first serves while she converted four of eight break-point chances.
Barty applied heavy pressure from the start, reeling off five games in a row to put Collins, who has only three WTA main draw wins on red clay, on the back foot.
Collins responded by taking the last five games of the second set to level up the match.
But Barty regrouped and quickly rallied to a 3-0 lead before the world No.30 Collins got on the board in the final set.
The Australian No.1 continued her run by reeling off the final three games to set up a round of 16 showdown with Zazakh Yulia Putintseva, who beat Pauline Parmentier 6-4 4-6 6-3.
- AAP
