A philosophical Casey Dellacqua is moving on after big-hitting Madison Keys dashed her hopes of another charge to the second week of the Australian Open.
Australia's 29th seed crashed to a 2-6 6-1 6-1 second-round defeat at Melbourne Park on Thursday and admitted she had little say in the matter.
"The game's always on Madison's racquet," said Dellacqua, rating the exciting American teenager's groundstrokes as powerful as anyone on tour.
Dellacqua was on track after winning the opening set before the match turned in a twinkling early in the second.
Serving at game point in the second game of the set, Dellacqua watched on in dismay as a fluky backhand return flick from Keys landed in at a ridiculous angle for a winner.
Keys went on to win the game before finding her range with her deadly groundstrokes and going on to dominate.
One of the brightest young stars in women's tennis, the 19-year-old world No.37 won 11 of the last 13 games to march into the third round in 87 minutes.
"She's certainly a quality player. So I was very aware that her level was going to improve," Dellacqua said.
"Few tough games early in that second which kind of went her way. But that definitely changed the momentum.
"Then once she got confident and once she got swinging, she's pretty much top-10 material I would say."
Dellacqua reached the fourth round for the second time last year and will take a rankings hit following her early exit.
But the 29-year-old was not overly fussed, promising to continue to work hard and improve.
"I mean, I'm obviously disappointed. You always want to win in Australia and you always want to continue to stay in the tournament as long as you can," she said.
"But it's early in the season. Last year I played a lot of really good girls week in, week out. That's what I want.
"I had that last year. This year I'm going to get those opportunities, which will be great for me."
Ajla Tomljanovic's fleeting grand slam run as an Australian is also over - for now anyway.
The Zagreb-born, Florida-raised, Brisbane-based import bowed out of the Open earlier on Thursday with 6-1 7-6 (7-1) second-round loss to American Varvara Lepchenko.
Tomljanovic was blown off court in the opening set before putting up a fight in the second, only for the 30th seed to race through the tiebreaker and take out the adopted Aussie.
Tomljanovic played the Open under the Australian flag but will revert to Croatian for regular tour events until her residency is processed.
The 21-year-old will, though, represent Australia at the French Open and Wimbledon, with the ITF recognising her Aussie status at the majors.
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