The top-seeded Ashleigh Barty, who represented her country’s best chance for a homegrown Australian Open champion, lost in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, falling 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 to the 25th-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
Barty began the match in dominant form, leading Muchova by a set and a break at 6-1, 2-0. From there, however, Barty became inconsistent. At 2-1, she hit four unforced errors to drop her serve and level the second set. She finished with 19 unforced errors in the second set, after having only six in the first.
As Barty faltered, Muchova played with increasing poise and patience, exemplified by one rally in the second set in which she needed to hit four overhead smashes before Barty finally made an error.