Aussies into fourth round at Wimbledon

Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic has raced to the fourth round of Wimbledon along with Alex de Minaur and Jason Kubler

Alex De Minaur returns the ball to Britain's Liam Broady at Wimbledon. Picture: AFP.

Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic has raced to the fourth round of Wimbledon but it’s the “stitched up” actions of her father, which have been front of mind.

Two other Australians have also qualified through to Monday’s fourth round: Alex de Minaur in a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 straights sets victory over Britain’s Liam Broady on court one. And on the outside court 18, unknown Brisbane player Jason Kubler was a shock victor in a four hour marathon, beating American Jack Sock 6-2, 4-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Ratko Tomljanović, a former Croatian handball player had only booked Wimbledon accommodation for the first week and then excused his oversight, telling his daughter that “hungry rats swim the fastest”.

Tomljanovic said she had to change hotels before playing the number 13 seed Barbora Krejcikova, of Czech Republic, on Saturday. She survived a first set scare to close out the match with powerful baseline play 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Indignant Tomljanovic laughed about her father’s lack of faith: “I was like, you know (to dad) ‘you thought I’d lose second round. At least book it till like Sunday so it’s a good problem to have’. I’m not really satisfied being in third round and then moving houses’.

“The problem was it’s so hard to find something. London is packed, and I didn’t want to stay an hour away. He was very — he didn’t take it well. I gave him a lot of crap yesterday.”

But Ratko was in further hot water on Saturday when Tomljanovic, 29, progressed through to the fourth round to be held on Monday. She will play Alize Cornet of France, who beat the world number one Iga Swiatek in straight sets on Saturday.

“Funny enough, today when I finished, he’s like, Oh, I have to book again. I was, like, You’re kidding me.”

Tomaljanovic shakes her head: “He wasn’t kidding, but he managed to book the same hotel, so I have a room probably until Tuesday, but I don’t care. I said, even if someone is joining me in my room, I’m not leaving this hotel.”

However Tomljanovic isn’t about to sack her father from secretarial duties.

When asked if she would take over the bookings in future, she said with a broad smile: “Probably not. He’s like, Ajla, something like, ‘hungry rats swim the fastest’ – whatever that means. Like some old fatherly saying.

“I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not a rat and I’m not hungry. I just want my house from the beginning till the end, or maybe you should just believe in me a little more’.”

She added: “Who knows what would have happened also last year. Thank God we were in the bubble. There was no choice. I always had my room. He saved me a lot of money over the years, you know, taking care of my flights, my bookings. Actually I have never had anyone else do that for me. I’m not going to give him too much trouble because he’s been a great dad that way. But he stitched it up a little bit this week.’’

Kubler too, said he had been scrambling for a bed, after earning a Wimbledon slot through the qualifying tournament.

“When I qualified on the Thursday, I think the accommodation finished Friday. I was stressing that Friday trying to find somewhere,’’ he said, eventually finding a room in the official players’ hotel.

Incredibly Kubler 29, has played a third of his 10 year grass career wins – just six of them – in the past 10 days. His win over Sock was just the second five set match he had played as a professional.

“Before this tournament I think I played on grass at a doubles event in a challenger, and then other than that I was playing on hard court and then before that on clay,’’ he said.

He added with some understatement: “My lead-in to this event wasn’t even probably as much time on grass as I wanted.”

Kubler was a teenage prodigy, mentioned in the same breath as Rafa Nadal, but had troublesome knee issues, requiring five surgeries on his left leg and one on his right.

To manage the impact of playing tennis on his knees, Kubler restricted his tournaments, mainly to the clay, and eked out a meagre living by being paid to have hits with other players and giving coaching tips to juniors. Back in 2017 he almost took up coaching full time but had a small win and decided to keep playing.

When he won the qualifying event, front of mind was the $10,000 pay check, but since then he has notched up wins against British star Dan Evans, Dennis Novak and Sock and has earned winnings of $337,000.

“It is a life changer to an extent,’’ he said.

“I can sort of invest more in myself now with that large amount of money for me.

“If anything, I just see sort of maybe a physio on the road more often, definitely more weeks with a coach. You know, I have my coach Jarrad Bunt. Maybe I can get more weeks with him on the road. If anything, it’s just I give myself more opportunity to hopefully do something like this again.”

De Minaur was thrilled that Australia had enjoyed such success on Saturday and he singled out Kubler for his happy attitude to life.

“Just to be able to see Kubler doing what he’s doing, it’s just special,’’ De Minaur said.

“You know, he’s honestly one of the best guys out there. I mean, the attitude he has towards life itself is just surreal. It’s second to none.

“We’ve had him in Davis Cup, and honestly I have not seen the guy not be happy any day of his life. It’s genuinely just amazing to have him around. I mean, he brings you up. He’s the sort of guy that just is always happy, and he’s always got a smile on his face. He’s enjoying like.

“It’s great to have him and to see him perform so well. Extremely stoked to have him around. And, you know, I’m going to be hitting with him tomorrow. It should be fun.”

It is expected that both men will play on Monday with Kubler facing American Taylor Fritz while De Minaur will be up against Cristian Garin.