Ajla Tomljanovic aims for the US Open semifinals. Photo: AP
She is the daughter of Ratkoa famous Croatian handball player he was world runner-up in Iceland in 1995 and bronze at the European Championships in Portugal in 1994. It was also the couple of the explosives Nick Kyrgios for just under two years. And some time later she was her partner Matteo Berretti, the Italian bomber she was with between 2019 and this 2022. However, at this moment no one is talking about her because of her father or her boyfriends. For a few days everyone has known how the rival put an end to Serena Williams’ career. This is the particular story of alja tomljanovicthe tennis player in which this Tuesday he will try to extend his trip the US Open to secure a place in the semi-finals of the last Grand Slam of the season.
Tomljanovic is 29 years old and measures 1.80 meters. He was born in Zagreb, Croatia, but represents Australia. However, he studied in the United States, where his family resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. The first turning point in his life came when he decided not to follow in Ratko’s footsteps. Why has the paternal mandate not continued? Because as a child she saw a photo of the head of the family, the successful handball player, with a trophy in her hands. Curious, she asked him where that glass was. And Ratko told him he didn’t have it because it was a collective prize. From that day, when she was just 7 years old, she decided to practice an individual sport. And it was then that she chose to imitate her older sister, Hana, who had started taking tennis lessons.
Alja is right handed and has a fantastic backhand. It is his favorite shot of him and has been noticed. So much so that it caused the youngest of Williams’ latest headaches as a tennis player in what was her last role. She did it by giving a show of character. Only her coach Alessandro Bega and the people who were in her box wanted her to win. The rest: The 23,850-plus spectators who filled and established a record-breaking capacity at Arthur Ashe, Flushing Meadows’ main court, cheered Serena for stretching it last dance as a tennis player
The Australian was carrying a heavy load. He ended up apologizing for causing the great champion’s final chapter. “I’m so sorry because I love Serena as much as you do. What she did for me, for the sport of tennis, is incredible. Up to the last point, I knew she could. That’s who she is, the best everAlja blurted out as Williams waited for the final applause and magically become a legend.
And I add: “It’s possibly the most conflicted feeling of victory I’ve ever had. During the match I wanted to win badly, but when he finally started talking about his family, I got excited. I wanted to win and did my best to win.” , but when the game was over, I felt bad for her because I empathized with how she feels about her, talking about her about her family. It was difficult to control “.
In that sense, she explained how she did to prevent emotions from taking her away from her goal, no matter what was happening around her. “Before the game I was really nervous, because I had never played against Arthur Ashe or against Serena, so I knew it was going to be tough, but from the first ball I felt very comfortable. I would say it was instinct. How did I isolate myself? “I applied the Novak technique (I changed ‘Roger, Roger’ to ‘Novak, Novak’). I used it and also tried to block it as much as possible. Sometimes it came internally, but I didn’t take it personally. I too would have cheered Serena today if I hadn’t played against her. It wasn’t easy. I have always dreamed of playing on this field as a child. I tried not to. look too much in the stands and stay in my bubble “.
It worked. and did not relax Tomljanovic, who speaks Croatian, English and German, is a fan of Rihanna and Brad Pitt and that she will never forget in her life the moment she met Chris Evert, another white sports heroine, according to her short profile on the WTA page. In your next round you beat the Russian Liudmila Samsonova, 35 years old in the world. She seems small considering the giant that had just come down, but it was huge. It is that Alja, who is currently 46 in the WTA rankings, has never climbed beyond the 38th step, although she will do so after her time in New York. It’s more. He could never have won a title as a single player other than having already pocketed more than $ 5 million in his career. Will he hit him at the US Open? It sounds complicated. Today it’s up to the Tunisian Ons Jabeurone of the best today and also one of the big favorites to reach the final.
Once she left Samsonova behind, at the press conference, she reflected: “Today I thought: ‘I’m in the quarterfinals, wow’. After seeing how the game started, with a slow start and her playing very well, the goal seemed too far away. Today maybe I experienced more positive emotions, only positive, while on Friday I didn’t believe what I had done, I was hallucinating, but I felt like the greatest villain in New York. Yes, something like that “..
Asked about her feelings for getting so close to reaching a Grand Slam final for the first time in her career, Tomljanovic chose to keep her feet on the ground. “I can’t think about it, but I certainly don’t have the feeling that I had last year, where I was perhaps a little satisfied with having reached the quarter-finals. Now I’m great, happy, sure, it’s my first time at the US Open, but at the same time I want to want more. I like having this feeling “Whitening.
It’s that Alja feels she has finally left all her ghosts behind: “I have lived through so many disappointments for a long time, this is a time when it seems that what I have sown is finally reaping. Especially because of the long games I have lost in the past, now I am winning them. For this reason I am calmer in this. moment. I feel great, the work is paying off. Today, when it came to this match, I felt I had less nerves, but everything was different. I was nervous about facing my rival, I knew I was the one I was best at, I had just won two titles relatively comfortably. After losing to her in Washington, I left the pitch thinking I didn’t get too many wrong but gave up on the third set very easily. Today I found the way to overcome it. It’s not the same to face someone in a Grand Slam as in a touring tournament. Today I handled the occasion much better, that is. “. It is clear that Tomljanovic, after overcoming Serena, has found peace and confidence in his game.
Tomljanovic was a partner of Kyrgios from 2015 to 2017. The love story was seen on the social networks of the two, especially during the holiday period. It seemed like they were happy and ate partridges until the photos that went viral started to fade as if it was the image that Marty McFly (Michael Fox) wants to immortalize in Back to the Future while good rock and roll plays. The yellow papers say the end of the relationship came after an alleged infidelity of the Canberra native after being eliminated in the 2016 edition of Wimbledon.
Precisely, in the last tournament played in All England, Tomljanovic exploded when a journalist asked him what he thought of the complaint that had been made on Kyrgios, sued by another of his exes, Chiara Passari, for gender violence. He happened after the quarter-final defeat against Elena Rybakina.“It’s disappointing that after two hours of playing in the quarter-finals this is the first question I get asked. And then he doesn’t ask about the match. I’m happy to see the titles talk about this … Do better.”the Australian complained.
A few months after breaking up with his compatriot, Tomljanovic began dating Berrettini. Italian, similar lover of Latin, was his partner until 2022. The relationship, as happened with Kyrgios, could be followed on social networks. Although the two’s hectic schedule, with constant travel around the world, has kept them not as close as they would have liked. “The problem is that she too has her career, and I can’t take her with me during the season,” Berrettini complained.
How did he live? “She is very loyal, she always supports me. I like having a partner from the same industry because we travel to the same place many times, we enjoy more time together. I always hope to win on the same day, so we don’t have to pretend we’re not happy, “Alja said. But one day the happiness ran out.
They separated a few months ago. And there are no traces of their coexistence on Alja’s social networks.
The funny thing is that the three of them agree that they are experiencing a great US Open. And the three will jump on the pitch this Tuesday to hunt for one in the semifinals. Alja, has long been known, no longer wants to be Ratko’s daughter. Neither the ex of Kyrgios and Berrettini. She doesn’t even care to go down in history as the tennis player who got Serena Williams to hang her racket. The past is gone.
Now she wants to be the queen of New York. will be?
“Right now I’m really good at letting go. I’m not afraid to fail: I’ve already failed so much in my career. The worst thing that can happen to you is to lose, you know … But you wake up the next day and you’re alive. life goes on. Now I know if I lose that’s all, that’s what happened. It doesn’t matter, I keep working. I don’t see it as something as dramatic as maybe I’ve seen it in the past. “. He has a lot of tennis. And she also has a lot of attitude.
Source: Clarin
