Ash Barty was at her gracious best as she was pushed on her thoughts about the medical time-out that killed her momentum in her quarter-final against Karolina Muchova, effectively wiping her from the Australian Open.
The world No.1 rarely throws shade at her opponents no matter the circumstances and she played a probing press conference with a straight bat when asked if medical breaks should be allowed for issues such as dizziness.
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"I don't write the rules. I don't write the rules. I abide by them. All of us players, we abide by the rules that are written," Barty said.
"It's not my place to comment here whether she had an injury or not. That's the physios and the doctors.
"Obviously that she's taken her medical time-out meant that there was something wrong. She was within the rules, within the guidelines to take that time."
One of her closest friends, Casey Dellacqua, gave her opinion on the biggest talking point in the match in Nine's coverage immediately after Barty was spectacularly dumped out of her home grand slam.
Dellacqua, who called the match alongside Jim Courier and Sam Smith said "a few questions would be asked" about Muchova's decision to take the stoppage.
"There will be a few questions asked about the medical time-out," Dellacqua said.
"(It's) legally fine. I think she said she felt dizzy, but then came out and whatever they did for her really helped because she came out and she played some really good tennis, started getting her serve moving, started getting her serve moving, started to really use her forehand well, came forward a lot more."
Barty was firmly in charge of the match before her charge to the semi-finals was halted by an unscheduled interruption.
The Aussie star played one of her finest sets of Grand Slam tennis to move within a set of the final four, pummeling Muchova from the first serve of the match to chalk up a 6-1 first set win.
Yet it all turned immediately when Muchova called for a medical time-out after Barty broke yet again for a 2-1 lead in the second set.
Barty was never able to consolidate the break, with Muchova immediately erasing the local hope's advantage by breaking the world No.1 for the first time in the match to square the set at 2-2.
From that moment on the Czech took control, with Barty completely losing her groove and spraying unforced errors all over the court.
Speaking in her press conference, Barty admitted she had been completely thrown by the match's sudden stoppage.
"I would have liked to have just been a little bit sharper the next game. Started well with the first point, just made a couple loose errors in that game," Barty said.
"I think for the rest of the set, that was the story, it was just over and over-made. Probably pressed a little bit trying to be overly aggressive.
"Had some break points, I think it was that 3-all, that was probably a bit of a critical game in the momentum there for the second set.
"Just disappointed with the fact that I wasn't able to bring the match back on my terms after she took that break."
Barty added that the weather had clearly played a part, with Melbourne throwing up one of its few hot days of the tournament, which was a major contributing factor in the medical time-out.
"I mean, I think when you look down the other end, you could see she was taking her time quite often. It was probably the first warmer day we've had here for a while," Barty said.
"I tried not to focus on her too much. It's about going about it the right way for me, the way that I wanted to play the match.
"I felt like I lost my way a little bit there in the second set, midway through, kind of lost that momentum that I built."
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