World No 1 Ash Barty’s Olympics campaign takes another hit as she loses her doubles quarter final

Ash Barty and her partner Storm Sanders have been knocked out of the Tokyo Olympics women’s doubles after going down to the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.

Barty and Sanders won the first set but ultimately were out played by Czech tennis stars Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova who won 3-6, 6-4, 10-7.

It comes as another blow to the world No.1 after Barty crashed out of the women’s singles in the first round.

But her Olympic campaign is not over yet with the Aussie to pair up with John Peers for the mixed doubles later on Wednesday.  

The top-seeded Czech pair have recently dominated the WTA doubles circuit while a win would have seen Barty and Sanders in competition for a medal.

The game ended with a ten-point tie break but the victory was given to the Czech duo when Barty couldn’t return the final serve of the match. 

Barty had earlier gone down in straight sets to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in the first round of the Olympics. 

She had arrived in Tokyo as one of the gold medal favourites for the women’s singles title after recently claiming her second Grand Slam.

‘It was a tough day. A disappointing day,’ Barty told Channel Seven after her singles loss.

‘I can’t lie about that. I can’t hide behind the fact that I wanted to do really well here, and today wasn’t my day. 

‘I never really felt comfortable out there and wasn’t able to play the match on my terms.

‘The key to my game is serving well and I wasn’t able to do that today. I was a bit erratic and made too many errors.’ 

Barty will now prepare for her first round in the mixed doubles with Peers.

The pair have history, enjoying quarter-final runs at Wimbledon in 2013 and in the 2014 US Open, which was the last time they played together. 

More to come.