Shunted from Rod Laver Arena, Ashleigh Barty has let slip a huge opportunity to become the first home-grown Australian Open women's quarter-finalist in more than a decade.
Barty crashed out of the Open on Saturday after falling victim to some last-minute court reshuffling and the awesome firepower of Japanese prodigy Naomi Osaka.
Unseeded Osaka crunched 12 aces and 24 clean winners to remove Australia's last hope in the draw with a crushing 6-4 6-2 third-round defeat on Margaret Court Arena.
Osaka's reward is a shot at wounded world No.1 Simona Halep for a place in a grand slam quarter-final for the first time.
"I feel really happy but I'm also kind of sorry because I know you guys wanted her to win," the 20-year-old told the local Australian crowd on Melbourne Park's third-biggest show court.
"So thank you very much because I've never played in an atmosphere like this before.
"I've always wanted to play against an Australian player because on TV it always seems really cool."
The marquee match had been slated to start on Rod Laver Arena not before 3.30pm.
But with Halep needing almost three-and-a-quarter-hours to subdue American Lauren Davis 4-6 6-4 15-13, and then the men's showdown between Alexander Zverev and Hyeong Chung going five sets, Open officials shifted Barty and Osaka.
That was no problem for Osaka.
"I just think there would have been a lot more people cheering for her," said the free-swinging world No.70.
"So I think it was good for me."
Whether or not it was good for Barty will never be known.
Inspired by the raucous home crowd, the 21-year-old thrived on Rod Laver Arena in back-to-back comeback wins from a set down in her opening two matches.
But officials opted to move Australia's big hope from centre court on Saturday, possibly to avoid a repeat of the drama of exactly decade ago when Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis ended up playing until 4.34 on the Sunday morning.
"Some tough battles continuing on #RLA mean matches are going much longer than anticipated," Open tournament director Craig Tiley tweeted.
"In the interest of fairness to all players #Barty v #Osaka has been moved to #MCA as it's the earliest available slot."
Moving the Barty-Osaka match allowed the night session featuring former world No.1s Maria Sharapova against Angelique Kerber and men's defending champion Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet to start as planned at 7pm.
Barty was unavailable for comment until after opening her women's doubles campaign on Saturday night with Casey Dellacqua.
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