IT’S NOT ABOUT TIME FOR ASH
Rival’s medical time-out not to blame – ‘I lost my way a bit’
A SHATTERED Ash Barty won’t blame a questionable medical time-out by her opponent for her shock exit from the Australian Open.
The world No. 1 was in total control of the quarter-final until 27th seed Karolina Muchova called for the doctor early in the second set.
She then left Rod Laver Arena for treatment with the 10-minute delay unsettling Barty, who completely lost her rhythm.
An inspired Muchova then proceeded to win 11 of the next 14 games to claim the biggest win of her career 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Afterwards the Czech said she had felt dizzy and “lost” on the court with ice treatment during the time-out the reason for her stunning resurrection.
Barty said time-outs were within the rules and she trusted the judgment of the WTA medical staff.
“It’s within the rules. She’s within her rights to take that time,” she said. “If she wasn’t within the rules, the physios and the doctors would have said so.
“That’s the laws of our game, we have those medical timeouts for cases that are needed. Obviously she needed that today, it’s completely within the rules for her to take that.
“From my point of view, I’ve
played a lot of matches where there have been medical timeouts. I’ve taken medical timeouts myself before, so that shouldn’t be a massive turning point in the match.
“I was disappointed that I let that become a turning point. I’m experienced enough now to be able to deal with that.”
Asked if she thought there should be more scrutiny on medical time-outs, Barty said: “I don’t write the rules, I abide by them.”
Muchova said she almost fainted on the court because of the warm conditions with the temperature hovering around 30C at Melbourne Park.
“I think it was a bit of heat. Yeah, it got to me,” she said. “I was feeling kind of dizzy at some point, like really, really lost and almost fainting. yeah, I just asked for help.
“They cooled me down with ice. I was a bit in a shadow. Doctor checked my pressure, my temperature and everything. Yeah, I think the ice thing was the main one.”
Barty, who lost in the semifinals last year, tried to put a positive spin on the surprise loss given she’d had an 11month lay-off coming into the Australian Open.
The draw opened up for the 2019 French Open champion who avoided Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in her half with American 24th seed Jennifer Brady the other surprise semi-finalist to face Muchova.
“It’s heartbreaking, of course,” Barty said. “But will it deter me, will it ruin the fact we’ve had a really successful start to our season? Absolutely not.
“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. I felt like I was in control of the match. I knew how I wanted to go about it, just lost my way a bit.”
Barty confirmed she was intending to move overseas for a significant part of the year, starting with tournaments in the Middle East, but it was still dependent on the COVID-19 situation in Europe.
So,