Ash Barty, Ajla Tomljanovich to play each other in Wimbledon quarter-finals

It will be an all-Australian affair for the first time in 20 years when Ash Barty plays Ajla Tomljanovich in the quarter-finals.

Australia's Ashleigh Barty celebrates after beating Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova during their women's singles fourth round match on the seventh day of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.

Good friends Ajla Tomljanovic and Ashleigh Barty will face each other in a Wimbledon quarter final clash in the early hours of Wednesday morning, ensuring the first time in more than two decades that an Australian will progress through to a grand slam semifinal.

A generation of Australians have never seen an Australian woman in the semifinal at Wimbledon; the most recent accomplishment was in 2000 when Jelena Dokic was defeated by Lindsay Davenport. The last all-Australian quarterfinal matchup was 41 years ago when Evonne Goolagong played Wendy Turnbull.

For Tomljanovic, 28, her career best effort was made extra special when her partner Matteo Berrettini, of Italy also won through to the quarter finals and will play one of his friends, Felix Auguer-Aliassime of Canada. Auger-Aliassime’s girlfriend, Nina Ghabi, a Croatian equestrienne, is Tomljanovic’s cousin.

Tomljanovic said she passed Auger-Aliassime in the hallway after her match and fist bumped him, while Berrettine even gave him a hug. “ it makes me so happy, one of them will be in the semifinal,”she said.

Tomljanovic, who was playing superbly in her court one match late Monday, progressed through when local wildcard teenager Emma Raducanu was forced to retire hurt in the second set.

“I really am kind of shocked,’’ said Tomljanovic.

“Obviously firstly because Emma must be really really hurt, I mean to play as a Brit at home, its unbelievable, so I wished we could have finished it,’’she said.

But Tomljanovic said she was happy to now share the centre court on Tuesday with Barty.

She said: “I am going to have to bring everything I’ve got to potentially win, but I am not thinking so much about winning , but what I have got to do to put myself in the best spot , and then hopefully you my instinct takes over. I think it is going to be special no matter what.’’

Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Barbora Krejcikova of The Czech Republic shake hands at the net after their Ladies' Singles Fourth Round match.

Barty and Tomljanovic have a warm and friendly relationship, often helping each other to warm up for matches.

Barty said before she knew that Tomljanovic would be her opponent that it has been “incredible” for Australian tennis to see her success.

“I was pumped to see Ajla through to the second week here for her first time at Wimbledon, I think. She’s been knocking on the door for a long time. She’s a great girl, has been playing some great tennis. I was rapt for her to be able to get through.”

Ashleigh Barty plays a backhand in her match against Barbora Krejcikova.

All of the world’s top ten women, bar Barty and the No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, have been eliminated from Wimbledon or injured including number seven seed Iva Swiatek from Poland who lost her fourth round match against Ons Jabeur of Tunisia on Monday.

Barty won through to the quarterfinals after being pushed to her best form of the year against in-form Czech Barbora Krejcikova, who came into the fourth round match with a run of 15 match victories, including the French Open.

But the Queenslander responded to the pressure, upped her game, and controlled her serve to win 7-5, 6-3.

“She is one of the very toughest players to beat and I was excited for the challenge today and I felt I had some pretty good stuff when I needed it most, which is great,’’ Barty said.

Ashleigh Barty serves to the Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova on the seventh day of Wimbledon.

Tomljanovic had to wait until the evening for her match against the British wildcard Emma Raducanu to start.

Tomljanovic withstood the roaring crowd backing Raducanu in a tough battle. At one point in the first set Tomljanovic struggled to hold serve - the game taking eight minutes - but she held her nerve during long rallies and took the set 6-4.

But Raducanu began to labour and appeared to be suffering a stomach complaint during the second set and she then requested medical assistance with the score at 3-0.

Unlike the situation with Raducanu’s last opponent, Jelena Ostapenko, which resulted in the players accusing each other of disrespect, Raducanu continued playing until the doctor arrived at the change over.

Britain's Emma Raducanu (L) takes a medical time out during the match against Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic.

Raducanu was then taken off for medical treatment and couldn’t return to play, prompting an extraordinary outburst from BBC commentator John McEnroe who claimed Raducanu was overawed by the big occasion, even when it wasn’t clear what her illness was.

He said: ”It appears it got a bit too much which is understandable, particularly what we’ve been talking about this last six weeks with [Naomi] Osaka.

“How much can players handle?”

But Tomljanovic said the McEnroe remarks were “definitely harsh”.

Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia plays a forehand in her Ladies' Singles Fourth Round match against Emma Raducanu of Great Britain during Day Seven of The Championships.