When dual Wimbledon quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic walks through the gates at the All England Club next week, it will be another significant step towards overcoming the fear she has felt on the court over the past 12 months.
Although disappointed with a 6-1 7-6 (8-6) loss to Yulia Putintseva in a WTA Tour final in Birmingham on Sunday, it was an affirming week for Tomljanovic as she continued her comeback from a serious knee injury that forced her out of Wimbledon last year.
“Some stuff is out of my hands but I feel like I have to give myself a break because it is coming together nicely in some ways,” she told foxsports.com.au.
“I feel like coming in, I talked about my body (and) considered (it was in a) bad place but then I have played pretty good tennis considering how little I’ve played.”
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Wimbledon is the site of her best performances and she is looking forward to reuniting with friends and former teammates including Ash Barty, who will partner Casey Dellacqua in the Legends Doubles, much to the amusement of Tomljanovic.
“How good will that be?” she told foxsports.com.au. “They could be the best legends pairing ever. They are probably better than half the main draw now.
“I mean, I don’t know if that’s even fair that she’s playing legends. She is half their age.
“I don’t think all the other legends are thrilled about it but I’m really excited to see her and her baby. It’ll be awesome.
“I love going back there because it just reminds me of amazing memories.
“I think the older I’m getting, the more I appreciate the fact that I’ve played at Wimbledon for so many years.
“It’s amazing (and something you) don’t appreciate as much when you’re a bit younger.
“I love going back and I think I might love it even when I have stopped playing.”
That Tomljanovic is playing at all is a triumph given the injury hand she has been dealt over the past decade.
From a serious shoulder injury that threatened her career in her early 20s to the knee problem and surgery to remove uterine tumours, she has had an interrupted career.
A year ago, the 31-year-old was lamenting the state of a knee injury that had already sidelined her for six months and prevented her from playing in the first three grand slams of 2023 at a stage when she looked to be hitting the peak of her powers.
Tomljanovic had reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the previous two editions.
The feat won her membership of the prestigious Last 8 Club, which will give her a credential and free tickets to the tournament whenever she wants to attend.
When beaten by compatriot and eventual champion Barty in 2021, Tomljanovic drew laughs as she told of her ongoing struggle for accommodation.
Her father Ratko had initially booked for two days, only for the Aussie to continue to exceed expectations.
A year later, she proved the deep run was no fluke when she did it again at Wimbledon and then backed it up with a run to the quarter-finals of the US Open, where she defeated American legend Serena Williams in the final match of the 23-time major winner’s career.
While performing with distinction for Australia in the Billie Jean King Cup finals that year, the knee started to play up and it now requires extensive daily management to enable her to play.
“It still feels like a fight every day,” she said. “I’d be lying if I say that I really feel like I’m back to my best or even close to my best.
“There is still a lot of fear about my body every morning. If you saw everything I do for it, there’s a lot of time going into it.
“I don’t know if it’s fear or uncertainty but I have to trick my mind a little because I keep waiting for everything to go back to normal with my knee but it’s probably never going to.
“It will never feel the same and I’ve had trouble accepting that because I’m a perfectionist.
“I want everything to be how it was and how I see it in my mind and … it’s not going to and it’s been a challenge to accept that.
“I just try to let my mind wrestle a little bit (with) what gives me peace.
“I know once I have stepped on the court, I’ve done everything I can off it and on it … to execute the best I can.”
When Tomljanovic won an opening round match at the US Open last year in her first match back on tour, she said every muscle in her body was aching due to a lack of fitness.
The road back to reaching another WTA final for Tomljanovic, who is using a protected ranking to play the grass-court swing across the United Kingdom, has been chequered.
She claimed a title on clay in Florianopolis last November and played well at the Australian Open when she won a round before stretching former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko.
But the former world No.32, who would have held a top 20 ranking but for earning no points at Wimbledon in 2022 due to the tournament’s ban of Russian and Belarusian players, then had surgery to remove uterine tumours and has only played four tournaments since.
Her days of picking up a racquet and jumping on court are long gone. Now she requires at least an hour of rehabilitation and warm-up work to enable her to begin training or playing.
“I call it an extended warm-up but it’s really rehab,” she said. “I just try to feel out my body and … adjust depending on how it feels every day.
“It’s a challenge but it’s all worth it because everyone around me … has faith that it’s going to get to a point where it’s going to become more natural.
“There are many examples of athletes from different sports that have gone through this and they’ve played at the top of their game again, and that gives me some reassurance that there is a happy ending to all this.”
The past week in Birmingham was a major step forward.
Being able to play five matches in succession was a bonus for Tomljanovic, particularly as the last three were back-to-back, though she has withdrawn from an event in Eastbourne this week to freshen up.
The crispness of her ball striking was outstanding at different stages but the Australian, who will vault from a ranking of 190 to 135 in the infancy of her comeback, hopes it is only the beginning as she eyes Wimbledon ahead of an appearance at the Paris Olympics.
“The most challenging thing since I’ve been back has been to separate my mind from my body because you want that to be in sync,” she said.
“That feels really out of sync right now but it’s getting better with every match I play, especially match play.
“I feel like I’m striking the ball well but I rely a lot on my movement. At least I did before, even though I’m not the best mover at all on the tour, because I felt like whenever I played my best tennis I moved great.
“Sometimes I feel like it’s not there, so I panic with my shots. What I can do, I can do, and I accept that and I just have the belief that I can get better every day.
“If you saw me in my first match on grass a couple weeks ago, there have just been a lot of improvements. So it’s looking up.”