Ajla Tomljanovic optimistic ahead of Wimbledon despite falling short in Birmingham” – MASHAHER

Tomljanovic is using a special ranking of No.33 to enter Wimbledon, and is optimistic she can perform well.

“I’m excited. I have some amazing memories there,” she said.

“The fact that I have about a week to get ready gives me some peace of mind. Tennis-wise, I’m in a good spot, and I think that an extra week on the grass will only help me to feel even more settled in.

“In a way, losing today, it’s keeping that edge in me that I’m not satisfied, and I’m not coming into Wimbledon like, ‘I just won a tournament’, which would be a very different vibe.

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“I’m definitely hungry for Wimbledon and to do well there, and hopefully, I can get my happy ending there.”

Putintseva – who won four of her previous five meetings with Tomljanovic – was close to flawless and hit Tomljanovic off the court for the first half an hour of the final.

At 6-1, 2-0, the 41st-ranked Kazakh had lost only two points on serve.

Short ball? Putintseva would crush a winner, most often off her backhand wing. If Tomljanovic managed to get to the net? Putintseva would lob her, and the ball would land centimetres inside the baseline. If Tomljanovic lingered too deep in the court? Putintseva would uncork a wonderfully weighted drop shot.

But, suddenly, everything unexpectedly changed.

Tomljanovic hammered a forehand return winner, then Putintseva finally missed a shot. Love-30 turned into a break of serve, against the flow. The Australian started winning many of the elongated rallies she was almost always losing earlier.

The comeback was on in earnest, and went into overdrive when Tomljanovic scorched an inside-out forehand return winner to break again for a 4-3 lead.

However, Tomljanovic stumbled with a third set in sight. Consecutive errors saw her slump to 0-30 then 15-40 as she tried to serve out the second set.

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She made it back to deuce, then earned a set point – prompting Putintseva to walk off the grass and thunder her racquet into the court covers – only to double fault on the next three points to drop back to five-all.

A seesawing tiebreak followed, which began with Putintseva’s first and only double fault before she won the next four points to have Tomljanovic again on the back foot.

But while Putintseva’s mood darkened at times, the Australian remained stoic. Tomljanovic maintained an aggressive approach – for better or worse – and roared back once more, smacking a spectacular forehand winner to bring up a second set point.

That proved her last chance, and came and went on a missed return. Tomljanovic staved off two championship points, but dragged a forehand wide on the third to concede the title.

“It shows me that I’m not far off, but at the same time, what it shows me the most is that I still have a ways to go physically,” Tomljanovic said.

“I’m not 100 per cent happy with how I’m moving, but I want to give myself a break because I’m finding ways to win … and I’m very happy with how I’ve managed to do that this whole week because I was in some tough moments in the previous rounds.

“I see so much room for improvement, of getting better physically, but you can’t rush that, so that’s going to take some time. But nothing’s hurting more than it should, and that’s a big, big plus.”

Setbacks be damned: Aussie Ajla into grasscourt final but Thompson loses

Ajla Tomljanovic’s latest comeback is gathering steam ahead of Wimbledon, advancing to the Rothesay Classic final in Birmingham and within one victory of her maiden WTA title.

But the news was not as good for fellow Australian Jordan Thompson, who needed to win his Queen’s Club semi-final in London against Italian rising star Lorenzo Musetti to be seeded at a grand slam for the first time.

Musetti, who stunned Australia’s top player and last year’s runner-up Alex de Minaur in the first round, denied Thompson achieving that feat in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 result that booked him his first grasscourt final, after reaching the semi-finals in Stuttgart last week.

Of greater concern for Thompson will be a lower back injury that hampered him throughout the match, and he will hope it does not linger with Wimbledon starting on July 1.

Tomljanovic has endured a horror stretch with injury and illness in the past year-and-a-half since a breakout 2022 season, where she made the last eight at Wimbledon for a second time and the US Open, including ending Serena Williams’ legendary career.

A knee injury ruined her 2023 campaign, while she underwent surgery in February this year to remove fibroids from her uterus, which sidelined her for three months.

Tomljanovic has entered this year’s Wimbledon championships with a special ranking of No.33 to avoid having to qualify and will arrive confident after defeating Russian seventh seed Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in a 90-minute semi-final on Saturday.

The 31-year-old did not hide her elation after Potapova’s backhand thudded into the net. She will face Yulia Putintseva in the final, after the Kazakh beat Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-2, 6-2 in the earlier semi-final.

Tomljanovic won a 125-level WTA tournament in Florianópolis, Brazil last year, but this would be her first title on the main tour.

“I definitely didn’t expect to play a final here, just because I really take it one match at a time, as much [of] a cliché it is,” the world No.190 said.

“Whenever I’ve done well, I’ve never looked ahead – and I’m not going to do it now either. I’m going to do my best to prepare and give it my all tomorrow, then when it’s over, I’ll reflect on the week. But you know you’re in a good place when the players’ lounge is empty.”

Tomljanovic was the better player for most of the match against Potapova, but stumbled serving for the first set at 5-4 – after also having a set point in the previous game – and let slip a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak when she double-faulted to fall back to five-all.

But some stout defence from the Australian two points later helped her secure the set, when Potapova missed a down-the-line backhand narrowly wide searching for a winner.

Potapova, who hit eight double faults and 39 unforced errors, hung in for most of the second set after staving off another break point in the second game, but slumped to 15-40 at 4-5 before another errant backhand cost her the match.

Tomljanovic landed 71 per cent of her first serves and won 36 of those 48 points in an encouraging performance, as she prepares to return to the grasscourt major after a knee injury prevented her from playing last year.

“I just tried to keep a cool head,” she said. “I felt like I was a bit too ‘into it’ in the beginning, and I was losing a lot of energy just caring about every single point. I just tried to let go [and have an attitude of] ‘whatever happens’ and focus on what I can control.”

Thompson, who upset top-20 stars Holger Rune and Taylor Fritz this week, will still be one of the most dangerous unseeded floaters in the Wimbledon men’s draw, alongside the likes of 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini and 2023 quarter-finalist Chris Eubanks.

He lost the first three games of his semi-final, but had consecutive chances in the seventh game to fight his way back into the set before Musetti clinched a one-set lead.

The second set could hardly have been more different. Thompson raced to a 5-0 lead, but another back massage at the change of ends preceded a brief fightback from Musetti, who snatched back one of the breaks and almost a second as the match went to a decider.

The Sydneysider began rushing the net more often, only for Musetti’s fabulous shot-making – which resulted in 31 winners to Thompson’s 22, as well as fewer unforced errors – and defence from the baseline to rule the day.

Thompson fended off three break points in the penultimate game but not a fourth, with Musetti serving out the match to love. He will play the winner of the all-American clash between Tommy Paul and Sebastian Korda.

“It’s one of the toughest matches of this week,” Musetti said.

“Jordan was playing at a really amazing level, especially the second set and the third set. It was a really close one and really tough game there at 4-3, when I played some amazing shots that gave me the break. I didn’t shake, even under pressure … so I’m really proud of what I’m achieving this week.”