Jessica Pegula, Ashleigh Barty out of Australian Open 2021 after 3-set thrillers: WATCH

An eventful Day 10 at the Australian Open 2021 has ended with the finalisation of the women's singles semi-finals draw for the first Grand Slam of the year. The first two quarter-final matches - held on February 16 - saw the GOAT, Serena Williams, put on a dominant display as she defeated 2-time Grand Slam champions Simona Halep in straight sets. Meanwhile, 2019 Australian Open champion and 3-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka also made her into the semi-final with an equally commanding win over the Taiwanese wildcard Hsieh Su-Wei.

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Australian Open 2021 quarter-final: Jessica Pegula vs Jennifer Brady 

While the first two matches did not produce any upsets per se, the next two quarter-finals - Jessica Pegula vs Jennifer Brady and Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Muchova - led to the elimination of No.1 Ash Barty and recent sensation Jessica Pegula. After three easy victories against No.12 seed Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur and Kristina Mladenovic, unseeded American Jessica Pegula caught the attention of the tennis world when she upset fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.

With a Round 3 appearance at the 2020 US Open being her best showing in a Grand Slam until now, Pegula received a lot of media attention after her match against Svitolina. This also led to the widespread knowledge of the fact that her parents are billionaires, Kim and Terry Pegula - the owners of the professional sports teams, the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Going up against compatriot Jennifer Brady in the QF, Pegula took the first set 6-4, but ended up going down 6-2, 6-1 as the 22nd seed recovered wonderfully from the jolt. Pegula will finish her AO 21 journey ranked 61st by the WTA.

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Australian Open 2021 quarter-final: Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Muchova

Meanwhile, the women's top seed and 2020 semi-finalist Ash Barty was knocked out by Czech No.25 seed Karolina Muchova despite being a set up in their quarter-final match on Wednesday. Barty' tremendous run at the Australian Open this year had led many people to believe that this would finally be the year that she would her home Slam. However, her run to the top was cut short by an emphatic win from Muchova, who had not dropped a single set in her games against Jelena Ostapenko, Mona Barthel, Karolina Plíšková and Elise Mertens.

In her elimination of Barty, Muchova has pulled off probably the biggest upset in the women's draw of the tournament. She will now face Jennifer Brady at the semi-final on Thursday. This will be the first Grand Slam semi-final for both Muchova and the second, after the US Open 2020, for Brady.

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Image credits: Australian Open Twitter