Ashleigh Barty's first clay court quarterfinal has ended in defeat as former world No.1 Simona Halep ended the Australian's 11-match winning streak with a clinical victory at the Madrid Open.
The Romanian kept her hopes of regaining the world No.1 ranking alive with an efficient 7-5 7-5 win, although an occasionally off-balance Barty battled gamely before losing to a top-5 player for the first time this year..
She twice broke back to level sets on Thursday when Halep seemed on track for an easier progression to the semi-finals.
However, the world No.3 was never seriously threatened as Barty, who beat Halep on Sydney's hard courts in January, committed 37 unforced errors.
The world's premier clay-court player also relied on an accurate first serve (87 per cent) to condemn Barty to her first defeat since Indian Wells and dash hopes of back-to-back semi-final appearances after her Miami Open triumph last month.
Barty will still rise to at least No.8 in the world rankings this week despite the setback to her French Open preparations.
Halep now faces either world No.1 Naomi Osaka or unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic.
If Bencic eliminates Osaka, Halep, the reigning French Open champion, can retake top spot by winning her third Madrid title.
Earlier, Barty's 4-6 6-1 6-2 third-round defeat of Yulia Putintseva improved the 23-year-old Queenslander's win-loss record in 2019 to 23-3, matching Lleyton Hewitt's remarkable start to 2003.
Barty realised the enormity of her task against Halep, the owner of six titles on European clay, when the 27-year-old described her 6-0 6-0 third-round demolition of world No.46 Viktoria Kuzmova as the finest performance of her career.
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