“As soon as I won my second round, I deleted all my social media; everywhere I turned, it was Serena” – Ajla Tomljanovic on abstaining from social media before Serena Williams clash
Ajla Tomljanovic revealed her course of action to prepare for her clash with Serena Williams when she realized they were set for a third-round match-up at the US Open.
Tomljanovic recently spoke to Tennis.com.au after her imperishable win against Serena Williams. The Croatia-born Australian was asked about the pressure before the match, of potentially being Serena Williams' final opponent. Tomljanovic disclosed that she deleted all of her social media accounts in order to stay in a bubble and not let the significance of the situation get to her.
“As soon as I won my second round, I deleted all my social media and I wasn’t looking at the news. Because everywhere I turned, it was Serena. So I didn’t want to make it… Like I already know how great she is. I didn’t want to psych myself out even more. If I had heard that (conversation) before, I’d be like, ugh, that’s a tough task, then. But if I just stay within my little bubble and my people around me, it’s way easier to deal with things,” she said.
Serena Williams set up her clash with Ajla Tomljanovic after she fashionably dismissed World No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in the second round at Flushing Meadows. After her match, Kontaveit was visibly overwhelmed by the crowd’s absolute support for Williams and left her post-match press conference in tears. Tomljanovic noted that she was aware of the incident and prepared herself for disaster.
“I heard about it, and then I googled it. I thought, OK, whatever I think, how it will be, it will be probably worse. You cannot think, oh, what’s it gonna feel like when you double fault, or when you miss the first serve and you hear them (the crowd)? It actually does get to you. So after seeing her press conference, and just reading about it, I just tried to get as prepared as I could, for the worst,” she divulged.
Anett Kontaveit couldn’t hold back her tears after last question and left press conference early 😭😭😭 https://t.co/obdzrAhnBL
“It got to me a little bit, I’m not going to lie” - Ajla Tomljanovic on the crowd’s overwhelming support for Serena Williams
Ajla Tomljanovic kept her composure throughout her three-set thriller against the greatest of all time, Serena Williams. Defying all odds, the 29-year-old rose to victory on her sixth match point in the third set. The Australian, however, admitted to being affected by the crowd, who were cheering for Williams to push through.
SERENA WILLIAMS- THE LAST HANDSHAKE ❤️😭
Her 27-years long TENNIS LEGACY comes to an end with a heartbreaking defeat to Ajla Tomljanovic in Round 3 at @usopen 5-7 7-6(4) 6-1 https://t.co/gThFkuHaz4
In the second set, she had a quick exchange with the chair umpire about the crowd distraction but was mocked by the crowd for it. Tomljanovic shed light on the incident, stating that it had more to do with the crowd delaying her serve due to hindrance than them cheering for Serena Williams.
“It got to me a little bit, I’m not going to lie. But the thing that annoyed me was that I was ready to serve, and I don’t want to go by the pace of the crowd. It was mostly about that, because I’m not going to wait every time for them to stop cheering. So it was nothing really, other than I wanted the ref to control it better,” she said.
Ajla Tomljanovic will now face off against Liudmila Samsonova in the fourth round. Samsonova has lifted two titles in recent weeks and will be a tough opponent for the Australian.