You’d imagine Ajla Tomljanovic would have allowed herself a moment of reflection as she walked through the All England Club gates ahead of the 2024 Championships.
The popular Australian recorded her best Grand Slam result as a Wimbledon 2021 quarter-finalist and replicated her impressive result the following year.
“It’s special for sure,” Tomljanovic agreed of her return to the iconic tennis setting, while acknowledging that the special moment can also pass her by. “I don't know, maybe I'll appreciate it a bit more than when I’ve stopped playing. When I come here, I love it and kind of pinch myself the first moment, but then I get into this mode of getting ready.”
The forward-thinking approach is perhaps understandable, given everything that’s unfolded for Tomljanovic since her eye-turning quarter-final campaigns.
After another major quarter-final appearance at the 2022 US Open – where she defeated Serena Williams in the American’s final professional match – Tomljanovic’s progress was derailed by injury.
She sat out most of 2023, including The Championships, due to a knee problem. Having recovered some lost ground with a WTA 125 title late in the year, she also missed four months of the 2024 season following further challenges with her health.
It creates a growing sense of urgency as Tomljanovic, at age 31, reflects on her career. "I wish I had a bit more appreciation,” she admitted when asked if the injury-interrupted period had changed her perspective.
“What clicked the most to me is that it's so short this tennis life and I kind of lost a year and a half of what could have been, maybe, the best part of my career. So it made me realise that I don't have, in a way, much left because in my mind I want to play for 20 more years.”
It’s a mindset that adds to Tomljanovic’s determination to make every moment count.
Having returned from her latest medical timeout with a brief appearance at European clay-court tournaments (reaching the second round of the WTA 125 tournament in Parma and exiting first round at Roland Garros), the Australian is again showing her best form on grass.
Tomljanovic reached the Surbiton quarter-finals as a qualifier and enjoyed an even bigger week in Birmingham, where she progressed to the fifth WTA-level final of her career.
“I was serving horrible in Paris (but) I came on the grass and all of a sudden, my stats are better. I think grass gives me a different sort of confidence because I know that if I don't hit quality balls, I'm going to have to run more, which I don't want to do especially now,” Tomljanovic related.
“So I feel like I know my game a lot better on the grass than any other surface and I don't overthink or hesitate on grass. It really forces me to get out of my comfort zone and just play on instinct.”
She’ll need all those skills against No.13 seed Jelena Ostapenko, whom Tomljanovic famously upended at Wimbledon in a testy third-round match in 2021.
While the typically easy-natured Australian became frustrated with Ostapenko’s request for injury treatment, she insists there’s no bad blood between the two players now.
"We're cool, I would say. We had a hit in Birmingham for 30 minutes and look, for me what happened was in the past,” Tomljanovic said.
Having played and lost to Ostapenko twice – at Eastbourne in 2022 and this year’s Australian Open – since that memorable Wimbledon encounter, the unseeded Tomljanovic expects another intense battle against the 14th-ranked Latvian.
“I know from the get-go, I have to perform at a really high level and that's maybe a bit more pressure going in, but at the same time, I feel ready that I could produce my best,” said Tomljanovic, who can’t help considering a repeat of her quarter-finals success.
“I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that could still be a possibility,” she reasoned. “But I also think knowing that it might not happen is the beauty of sport. You don't know when it could be your time.”
