Tenth seed Belinda Bencic is out of the Australian Open after an erratic second round performance against world No. 126 Nikola Bartůňková, falling 6–3 0–6 6–4.
The Swiss No. 1 Bencic was among the favourites for the tournament, showing great form in winning all five of her matches in the United Cup earlier in the month.
But the 19-year-old Bartůňková, who came through qualifying to make her Grand Slam debut, outplayed Bencic in the opening set before responding impressively to the disappointment of being bagelled in the second, regrouping to prevail in a wildly fluctuating decider that featured five breaks of serve.
Despite landing just 38% of her first serves in the first set, Bartůňková won an impressive 90% of points behind it. The opening three games went with serve before a run of three consecutive breaks swung momentum firmly in the Czech’s favour, opening up a 4–2 lead.
The qualifier then played shrewdly, closing off the court and denying the Swiss the space to unleash her normally powerful groundstrokes, as she took the opening set 6–3 to the astonishment of the crowd.
The second set was all one-way traffic, as Bencic tightened up her game, committing just three unforced errors and converting all three of her break points to level the match with a dominant 6–0 bagel.
Any momentum gained from the bagel was quickly lost when Bencic was broken at the start of the decider. Although she broke back in the fourth game, the pivotal moment came in the sixth, when the Swiss failed to convert two break points that would have moved her 4–2 ahead.
From there the match swung wildly, with three consecutive breaks of serve giving Bartůňková a 5–3 lead. Somehow, under the most intense pressure she must ever have faced, the teenager remained the calmest player in the stadium, holding to love to seal the biggest victory of her career to date.
Bartůňková will next face Belgian 21st seed Elise Mertens in the third round.
