Ajla Tomljanovic felt like a villain Friday night, as the woman who ended Serena Williams’ legendary career.
Her emotions were very different two days later.
“It just feels really good to back up a win that I think got a lot of attention,” the unseeded Australian said after knocking off Ludmilla Samsonova, 7-6 (10-8), 6-1 at Louis Armstrong Stadium to continue her surprising run at the U.S. Open. “Just felt like it’s been a really big 48 hours.”
It’s been a roller-coaster few days for Tomljanovic, who has never advanced this far at the Open. The 29-year-old didn’t want to be remembered merely as the Serena Slayer. There was more for her to accomplish in Queens.
“I think my will to go further in this tournament was really strong and I didn’t want to stop just after what happened on Friday night,” Tomljanovic said. “I thought I deserved more. I definitely wanted to go for more. I dug deep because I felt like I had more left in me.”
With the one-sided victory, Tomljanovic moves on to the third Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. She will face No. 5 Ons Jabeur, a 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 winner over Veronika Kudermetova, next. This match was very different from the victory over Williams, particularly in terms of the atmosphere and the crowd, which swung its support in her favor.
“I thought they got behind me maybe more than my opponent,” Tomljanovic said. “I don’t know if that was maybe kind of like, ‘Oh, we were hard on you Friday, so here’s a consolation prize.’ But it definitely felt nice.”
She started slow, falling into a 4-1 hole in the opening set before rallying to force a tiebreak and saving eight set points in all to win the set. Tomljanovic dominated the second set by playing simple tennis, as Samsonova committed a whopping 22 unforced errors in the set and 56 altogether.
“It was more kind of maybe positive emotions today, just positive, whereas Friday it was, ‘Like, Oh, my God, I really did this, but, wow, I’m the biggest villain in New York right now,’” she said.