Karolína Muchová sits down 2-1 and sits in her chair. Movement and damping from behind a black Adidas face mask shows that she is talking to the two medics floating in front.
The one with the walkie-talkie tied to his pants, clutching her wrist between thumb and two fingers, feeling for a wrist that was clearly present but also very absent at Rod Laver Arena. The Czech 24-year-old man met her Australian Open match in Ash Barty, ran out and outsmarted for the 24 minutes it made the world no. 1 took to claim the first set.
Muchová stabbed her neck uncomfortably, and something clearly warranted further assessment. At least a temperature control because she’s hot and it’s cool and composed for Barty. Moist for Barty’s sharp. After the match, she reveals her “head turn”.
A walkie-talkie man reads the mercury and then nods to his colleague and the pair, both shoulder backpacks are undoubtedly full of bits for every situation, leading Muchová off the court and down the tunnel.
Barty’s challenger is gone. Quite literally, she left the scene of the massacre. But she is also figuratively gone. Nothing can turn this massacre around, this quarter-final forced tube in which there is no room for maneuver or air to breathe before the Australian world no. 1 does not interrupt her escape attempts again.
It is reminiscent of Barty’s opening camp against Danka Kovinić, the Montenegrin who dropped the opening set 6-0 and was then put in a double baggage. Muchová manages to avoid this when Barty, who raced 5-0 in the first game, after holding the service of love, gave Muchová a service match. The French Open champion in 2019 almost immediately reconciled the unforced errors with a pass shot on the line, which deserved the quick first-class victory.
An early interruption of Barty’s path in the second phase sets the medical time-out in motion. And so ends the first of two mini-games played in one. The second starts with Muchová coming up again and throwing that black Adidas mask on her seat – more like flickering. Something changed during those ten minutes.
Barty still does not quite know what, and is probably still not quite sure when Muchová will break her ministry. She becomes more alert to this reorientation by losing seven of the next eight games, and is painfully aware of a decisive swamp, inexplicably deeper with 2-0 down, then 3-1 and finally 5-2 and received to save her tournament.
Barty does not do such drama. But, unlike previous performances, it is no longer in her control. Muchová converts her first match point with an axis, a flawless finish to an unrecognizable second part of a match that lasts a total of one hour and 57 minutes.
A rhythm that gets lost, a collapse that is not a prospective champion. Barty’s face reads blank. So do the history books, as the local drought of the Australian Open single stretches to a 44th year.
Muchová, too, shrugs her shoulders at the baseline despite her almost mythical revival. Then she says she was not injured.
“I started to feel a little lost at the end of the first set. She made almost no mistakes,” she says afterwards. ‘It was very difficult and I was a little lost on the track and my head was spinning, and I was taking a breather. It helped me. I tried to come back, played a little faster rallies so we did not play the long ones like in the first set, and it worked well. ‘
A gracious Barty, poked and stuffed by media looking for a reaction, refuses to blame her opponent.
“It’s within the rules,” Barty says. ‘It’s within her rights to take that time. If she had not complied with the rules, the physicians and the doctors would have said so. These are the laws of our game, that we have those medical countdown times for cases that are needed. It was clear that she needed it today.
‘I’ve played a lot of games where there have been medical timeouts. I’ve taken medical time-outs before, so that would be a huge turning point in the game. I was disappointed that I could become a turning point. I am now experienced enough to handle it. ”
Muchová plays her semifinal against Jennifer Brady after the American overcame numerous errors to survive three sets against compatriot Jessica Pegula on Wednesday.