Top seed Ashleigh Barty and fourth seed Simona Halep were the heavy favourites entering their respective semifinals against Sofia Kenin and Garbine Muguruza on Thursday.
Instead, they tumbled out of Australian Open 2020 in almost identical fashion. Barty fell 7-6(6) 7-5 to the American 14th seed, while Halep lost 7-6(8) 7-5 to the Spaniard, unseeded at a major for the first time since Roland Garros in 2014.
Barty and Halep acknowledged they had chances they failed to capitalise on. And both, relatively upbeat in their post-match interviews, vowed to learn from their mistakes.
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“I won't wait a year to put those into practice, I'll put those into practice next week,” said Barty, who failed to convert two set points in each set.
“The next time I walk out on court, the next time I kind of wake up in the morning, every experience you need to learn from.”
For her part, Halep would have undoubtedly rued the four set points she didn’t capture during the opening set, and that she didn’t hold when serving for the second set at 5-3.
“I think maybe I could be a little bit more brave in the points that were important,” said the Romanian, whose aggressive play during her earlier rounds ensured she hadn’t previously dropped a set.
“At that moment I didn't have the clear mind to do what I had to do, but I will learn from this match and for sure [the] next time I have set point, I will go for it.
“I went a little bit defensive … and I couldn't take [control],”.
MORE: Muguruza hunts down Halep to reach AO2020 final
Barty, who will retain her No.1 ranking at the end of the fortnight despite the defeat, revealed that she doesn’t watch tape of her prior matches, a tactic some of her rivals use as part of their overall education or match preparation.
“I haven't watched a match that I've played for a long time. I haven't watched any that I won, I haven't watched any that I lost,” she said.
“I've lived through it, I played it, I know what happened.”
The 23 year-old Queenslander, who was contesting her first Australian Open as the world No.1, said she has loved every minute of competing at home over the past month.
“It's been a hell of a summer,” said Barty, who lived up to her seeding by dispatching 29th seed Elena Rybakina, 18th seed Alison Riske and seventh seed Petra Kvitova en route to the final four.
“I mean, if you would have told me three weeks ago that we would have won a tournament in Adelaide [and] made the semifinals of the Australian Open, I'd take that absolutely every single day of the week.”