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Kimberly Birrell will move on fast after having her fairytale ended in Brisbane, where world No1 Aryna Sabalenka is in ominous form.
Kimberly Birrell will quickly move on from her bittersweet Brisbane International quarter-final exit, determined to parlay her career-best form into an Australian Open berth.
Australia's new No.1-ranked women was able to smile despite her Friday near miss, Anhelina Kalinina saving a match point to reach the semi-finals with a 4-6 6-1 7-5 defeat of Birrell.
The Gold Coast talent had surged to a new career-high of 99 after beating world No.8 Emma Navarro and then No.35 Anastasia Potapova on her way to the last eight.
She again played fearlessly at Pat Rafter Arena, the match turning when a wicked cross-court forehand just missed at 30-30 to give Kalinina a match point.
The ice-cold Ukrainian then pummelled an ace to end the Birrell resistance that had captured her home crowd's attention all week.
Her joyful run came after elbow injuries five years ago stole almost three years from her career and forced Birrell, now 26, to rethink her tennis future as she dropped out of the world's top 800.
"I'm super, super proud of the way that I've been playing and just backing myself," she said.
"No matter who was down the other end, I trusted in my ability and the work that I put in in the off-season.
"I knew that my level was there. Now that I've really proven it, I think, yeah, so many positives."
Outside the top-100 cut-off before the tournament and not gifted a wildcard, Birrell will regroup and head to Melbourne needing to qualify to play in the Australian Open main draw.
"I'm definitely going to keep riding the high I've been on this week and take it into Melbourne; it should be fun," she said.
"You need to really prove on the match court that you can do it.
"I'm going to use that going into next week ... all eyes on AO."
Birrell seized a rare chance on Kalinina's serve to pinch the first set before the Ukrainian blazed her way back into the contest in a one-sided second.
Two tough service holds to begin the decider for Birrell, who then applied serious pressure at 5-4 with Kalinina serving to stay in the match.
Birrell's flat groundstrokes earned her a match point but Kalinina didn't wilt, instead finding her way to 5-5 and then flipping the script to end the Birrell fairytale.
Kalinina will play qualifier Polina Kudermetova, who beat American Ashlyn Krueger 7-6 (7-5) 6-3, for a spot in the final.
Mirra Andreeva beat Ons Jabeur 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in their quarter-final and will face world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, beat Marie Bouzkova 6-3 6-4 on Friday night.
The two-time defending Australian Open champion has based her game on power but showed off some new tricks to the delight of another packed Pat Rafter Arena.
Stretched on the forehand side, Sabalenka surprised an approaching Bouzkova when she craftily disguised a slice forehand that whizzed by her and drew a wry smile from the Belarusian.
