Ashleigh Barty looked like a sure bet to reach the
Australian Open semifinal after clinching the opening set but a pause in play derailed her plans.
Ashleigh Barty was looking very good in her quarterfinal match against Karolina Muchova against whom she clinched the open set without any issues. When she broke Muchova early in the 2nd set it seemed like the match was close to the end but a medical timeout, taken by Muchova completely shifted the momentum of the match from which Barty never recovered. On that she said:
"I would have liked to have just been a little bit sharper the next game. Started well with the first point, just made a couple of loose errors in that game. I think for the rest of the set, that was the story. Probably pressed a little bit trying to be overly aggressive.
Barty explained that pressing too much shifted the momentum too much in the Muchova's favour especially after missing out on a few break points:
"Had some breakpoints, I think it was that 3-All, that was probably a bit of a critical game in the momentum there for the second set."
The disappointment is huge for Barty whose tone echoes her disappointment. Talking about the match in general she explained it as such:
"I felt like I had small windows of opportunity probably midway through the second set and wasn't able to kind of regroup enough to be clear in the third set how I wanted to play. think I just lost my way a little bit, which is disappointing without a doubt"
Check out the full press-conference below: