I missed most of the second and all of the third because the WTA is a joke, but great start to the year for Miki! Looked like a pretty high quality match!
Couldn't watch Miki's debut, but how heartening to see her open with a nice win. From the Q-round scorelines, Barthel appears to be playing far above her ranking.
Mostly, it's a wonderful thing that Miki opens a season with a main draw WTA victory. In 2017! Ostapenko is obviously very dangerous (reminds me of Bencic, when Bencic could still play) but she can be overpowered if the points are kept short. Hope Miki can hang in there.
She was clutch in the first set on saving bps. I saw where she saved 0-40 to hold for 4-*3. Then my battery died. When I started watching again she was up 6-3 and had bps to go up a break in the second set, but didn't convert. Then, she kind of fell apart to lose the second set. I watched until 3-0 in the 3rd set, then rejoined it at 5-2. She served it out pretty easily.
Overall, I thought she was okay. There were few long rallies as both players went for it pretty early in points, resulting in ues or winners.
I hope she plays well against the brat, Ostapenko. Ostapenko had a terrible second half of '16, even worse than Miki. I think Miki can outhit her.