Wimbledon 2022: Ajla Tomljanovic vs Elena Rybakina, Aussie into women’s Quarter-Finals, preview, Ash Barty, tennis news

Croatian-born Ajla Tomljanović has already assumed the throne as Australia’s best women’s tennis player following Ash Barty’s shock retirement earlier this year, but could she be poised to soon enter the ranks of the sport’s elite?

Having finally started to play some consistent tennis over the last 12-18 months, Tomljanović continued her recent Wimbledon success to advance to the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the second straight year.

In coming from behind to defeat French veteran Alizé Cornet, 4-6 6-4 6-3, the world number 44 became the first Australian woman to make the final eight at Wimbledon in consecutive years since Jelena Dokic in 1999-2000.

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The unseeded Australian’s fourth-round win was made more impressive by the fact that Cornet was coming off an upset victory over current world number one Iga Świątek in the previous round.

An emotional Tomljanović told the London crowd after her victory that she was grateful to have another chance to play in the quarter-finals of the tournament, where she will face Kazakhstan’s 17th seed Elena Rybakina.

“After some tough moments earlier this year, I thought to myself am I ever going to get a chance (to play in the quarter-finals) again, and I can’t believe a year later I’m in the same position,” she said.

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The 29-year-old Aussie is hoping to use the lessons she learned from the experience of her crushing quarter-final defeat at the hands of compatriot, and former world number one, Barty to propel her into the semi-finals of a Grand Slam championship for the first time in her career.

“Last year was such a shocking thing for me, the way everything happened — it was so quick. I played someone that was playing unbelievable tennis,” Tomljanovic said of her 6-1, 6-3 loss to Barty.

“For her, being on centre court was like being in her backyard. For me, it was a huge occasion. Now I think I’m in a different spot, for sure.

“Obviously Elena is a great player — whoever’s in the quarters is doing great — but it’s definitely a little bit of a different match-up for me.

“I think I have a better shot.”

Tomljanović said that her form so far this tournament has only strengthened her belief that she belongs at the top of the sport.

“I don’t know what really my form was coming in … I just knew that I could produce good tennis, but actually doing it, it feels really nice,” she said following her fourth-round victory.

“(It) just kind of confirms that, you know, I maybe belong here.”

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Perhaps more impressive than Ajla’s back-to-back quarter-final appearances at Wimbledon, has been the quality of the opponents she has beaten this time round.

Tomljanović won two three-set matches in her run to the final eight last year, but didn’t face a single seeded opponent prior to her straight sets loss to top seed, and eventual Wimbledon champion, Barty.

This campaign, however, the last remaining Aussie female hope has come from behind in her last two matches and has already vanquished the 18th and 13th seeds, along with the aforementioned Cornet, to reach the quarter-finals.

Adversity is not a foreign concept to the Croation-Australian tennis star, having had a career full of ups and downs so far.

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“I think in my career I played a lot of top players first rounds in slams and I always feel like I can win, but it never really matters until you really do it,” she said.

After breaking through to the top 50 for the first time in 2014 and looking to continue her ascension through the rankings, Tomljanović suffered a serious shoulder injury in early 2016 that ended her season and led to a long road to recovery.

Having built herself back up following surgery and extensive rehabilitation to her injured shoulder, Ajla finished both the 2018 and 2019 seasons inside the top 50, before mixed results in 2020 led to her falling back out of the top 50.

Building on the momentum from her first ever quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon last year, Tomljanović reached a career best 38th in the WTA women’s singles rankings at the end of February this year, prior to some tough results which followed.

Alja will be hoping to continue her rich vein of form with a victory over Rybakina in tonight’s quarter-final and then look to build towards achieving her career goal of becoming the number one ranked player in the world.