US Open 2022: Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic out to break three-year quarter-finals curse
Two Grand Slam quarter final appearances for the year may not guarantee Ajla Tomljanovic a seeding at next year’s Australian Open.
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Ajla Tomljanovic fears her 2022 breakthrough won’t be rewarded with an Australian Open seeding in January after she failed to break her grand slam quarterfinal curse falling to Ons Jabeur at the US Open.
The fifth seed knocked out Australia’s top-ranked woman in straight sets, winning 6-4 7-6 under the roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
But with Russians banned from playing at Wimbledon the WTA tour opted not to award any ranking points to players so while Tomljanovic has back-to-back quarterfinal results in London, those crucial 430 points do not count in her overall tally.
Tomljanovic should rise from world No.46 to just inside the top 30 after her stunning run in New York, but if Wimbledon points counted she’d be knocking on the door of breaking into the top 20.
But now after a gruelling overseas run she isn’t sure when or where her next tournament will be and could find herself failing out of the bracket when the top ranked 32 players are awarded a seeding for the next grand slam in Melbourne.
“I’m in a position that sucks right now because I’m still fighting to be top 30,” she said.
“I don’t even know what I’m playing next. I don’t even know what there is to play.
I just know that I’m not the player to chase points. My body is not up for, like, I mean, flying tomorrow and then playing on Monday. I don’t even know if I can do that. I don’t know if I want to do that.
“But at the same time, I want to be in that group of players where I deserve to be.
“So just really frustrated at the moment with that, but I’m mad that I am frustrated with it, because it’s out of my control. But it’s still very frustrating.”
The Australian had stormed into the quarterfinals after sending Serena Williams into retirement in a stunning third round victory over the American champion.
ESPN confirmed that match was the most watched in their history, with an average of 4.8 million viewers eclipsing the previous record of 3.9m for Roger Federer’s 2012 Wimbledon victory and a peak audience of 6.9m.
But after the high emotions of wins over Williams and Liudmila Samsonova, Tomljanovic couldn’t get firing against Jabeur, but she knew she needed to “reflect a little bit and just give myself a little pat on the back, because I do deserve it”.
“Sometimes I’m scared to almost get happy because I feel like, you know, I’m going to jinx myself for the next one or get too excited,” Tomljanovic said after the match.
Tomljanovic struggled to find her rhythm early at Flushing Meadows, with Jabeur breaking her serve twice in the first set to seize the upper hand.
While the Australian fought back with a break of her own, she fell down 5-3 as Jabeur gained momentum. Tomljanovic fought off a set point on her serve before Jabeur easily served it out.
The Australian’s problems on serve carried into the second set, with a double fault giving up another break in the first game before she missed a chance to break straight back.
However, Tomljanovic began to find more power in her ground strokes, taking it up to Jabeur’s waning serve to level it at 2-2.
While the Tunisian managed to break her again, she was soon throwing her racket to the ground several times in the face of Tomljanovic’s renewed assault – antics that were out of character for a player known as the “minister of happiness” in her home country.
Jabeur dropped her serve twice more to give Tomljanovic a chance to serve for the second set. She blew it, opening the door for Jabeur to win the match in a tiebreak.
“Emotionally, it was kind of tough to manage the frustration ... She keeps fighting and she makes it tough for me,” the fifth seed said after the game.
“I think I’m going to be fired from my job, minister of happiness.”
Aussie giant-slayer to cure three-year quarters curse
Ajla Tomljanovic will aim to break a three-year quarter-final curse when she confronts red-hot Tunisian Ons Jabeur on Wednesday morning (AEST) for a spot in the US Open semi-finals.
The Australia world No.46 has reached her third career grand slam quarterfinal on the back of a giant-killing run that included the prized scalp of Serena Williams, but has never progressed to the semi-finals of any tournament since 2019.
Tomljanovic has lost five WTA quarter-finals this year and her last six QFs in a row, dating back to last year’s Wimbledon loss to compatriot Ash Barty.
She has not played in a WTA semi-final since the Zhengzhou Open in 2019 but comes into Flushing Meadows and her second appearance on Arthur Ashe Stadium confident in her ability to maintain composure in what shapes as her greatest grand slam opportunity.
“I think a lot of heartbreaks that have happened over a long time, I feel like what goes around comes around moment for me. Especially the long matches that I’ve lost in the past, now I’m winning them,” she said.
“I think for that reason I’m more calm in those moments. Yeah, it just feels nice, like the work is paying off.
“I think I’m really good at this moment at letting things go really quickly. Also I’m not scared to fail because I failed a lot in my career.
“You know what, the worst thing that happens is you lose, you wake up the next morning and you’re still alive, life goes on.
“I think now I know, Okay, if I lose, that’s it. It doesn’t matter. I keep going. I don’t see it as such a big deal as I maybe would have in the past.”
Her opponent Jabeur reached the Wimbledon final already this year and knows what it takes to go deep into the second week of a slam.
Jabeur holds a 2-0 lead in the head to head record, although their first clash was a decade ago.
“Maybe she’s a little bit trickier for my game,” Tomljanovic said, having lost to her most recently on clay in Rome last May.
“I’m going to have to bring my A game to win.”
HOW AUSSIE OVERCAME ENDING SERENA’S CAREER
Ajla Tomljanovic is not yet daring to dream of US Open grand slam glory, but the Australian who ended the career of a legend is firmly moving within reach of her own slice of history.
Tomljanovic’s stunning US Open continued on Monday when she saved eight match points and came from 5-2 down to defeat Ludmila Samsonova 7-6 (10-8) 6-1 and secure a spot in the quarter-finals.
Fresh from her shock win over 23-times grand slam champion Serena Williams in the previous round in front of a jam-packed and parochial US crowd, Tomljanovic has gone from “the biggest villain” to now the darling of the tournament feeling the love from an audience that adored the respectful manner in which she ousted their hero.
Tomljanovic broke her own social media ban after the Williams victory and admitted she’d been bombarded with well wishes since she took down the departing champ.
Those 8 set points that Tomljanovic saved v Samsonova in the first set:
— Ravi Ubha (@raviubha) September 5, 2022
At *4-5:
FE (BH return wide)
UE (FH long)
W (BH drop)
W (FH I/I)
UE (FH return long)
UE (FH long)
UE (BH net)
TB, 5-6*:
UE (FH net)
Ajla Tomljanovic has now won 14 of her last 18 matches since the start of Wimbledon & she has def. the World No. 4, 14, 18 & 20 (Kudermetova), 22 & Serena #WTA#USOpen#USOpen2022
— John Horn (@SportsHorn) September 5, 2022
Ok so Kyrgios won but so too did Tomljanovic and she's a much nicer person.
— thex57 (@thex57) September 5, 2022
A dream night for the Australians 🇦🇺
— Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) September 5, 2022
Ajla Tomljanović sails to her second consecutive Grand Slam QF after defeating Liudmila Samsonova in âœŒï¸ sets
📹: @usopen | #USOpenpic.twitter.com/5Pw7ZsBIPt
“Yeah, just feels really good to back up a win that I think got a lot of attention. Just felt like it’s been a really big 48 hours. I didn’t really feel like myself today the whole day. I don’t know, just felt a little bit drained,” she said.
“I was a little scared that I came off in a different way, then I read a lot of stuff where I was in a positive light, I was described as, which felt really nice.
“All I wanted to do in that match was just respect Serena’s legacy, but at the same time I wanted to win. For that to come off that way, I was happy about that.
“It’s been a little tough just because a lot of people came up to me personally, you know, said what they said. That felt really nice. At the same time it did drain my energy a little bit.
“But I think my will to go further in this tournament was really strong and I didn’t want to stop just after what happened on Friday night. I thought I deserved more. I definitely wanted to go for more.
“I dug deep because I felt like I had more left in me.”
Asked can she win the title, the two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist revealed her mindset was different to the last time she reached the final eight.
“I’m not going as far as that. But I definitely don’t have that feeling that maybe I had last year where I was maybe a little bit satisfied with making the quarters,” she said.
“Now I’m obviously great, happy, first time in US Open (quarter-final), but I’m feeling still really hungry, which I like.”
The 29-year-old world No.46 will play Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the quarters.
Originally published as US Open 2022: Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic out to break three-year quarter-finals curse
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