Australian ace tennis star Ajla Tomljanovic made headlines on Friday, September 2, 2022, when she beat American great Serena Williams in the third round of the 2022 US Open. She defeated the 23-times grand slam singles champion 7-5, 6(4)-7(7), 6-1 and advanced to the last 16.

Tomljanovic, who is ranked WTA no. 46, has been a consistent performer among Australian women tennis players for a long time. After defeating Serena at the US Open, Tomljanovic revealed that she earlier thought that she would be beaten by her opponent on Friday and said despite the win, she was sad like all fans because she loves and admires the American great.

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Who is Ajla Tomljanovic?

Ajla Tomljanovic was born on May 7, 1993, in Zagreb, Croatia, to Croatian father Ratko Tomljanovic and Bosnian mother Emina. Her father, Ratko, was a professional handball player, who won the 1992 and 1993 European Cup. She also has a sister, Hana, who also played tennis for the University of Virginia.

Coming from a sporting family, Ajla became interested in tennis from a young age. She began playing the sport when she was only six and later relocated to Florida in the United States when she was 13. Her coaching was handled by Fernando Martinez and Rene Gomez. Apart from tennis, Ajla also likes basketball and is a huge admirer of the NBA.

In her junior career, she won the 2009 Australian Open girls’ doubles with Christina McHale as the duo defeated Aleksandra Krunić and Sandra Zaniewska in the final.

She turned professional in October 2008 when she participated in her maiden ITF Circuit event in Mexico, where she lost against Estefania Craciun in the semifinal. She won her first doubles title at an ITF event on May 10, 2009, in Zagreb when she partnered with Petra Martic.

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She broke into the top 50 world rankings in 2014. It was the same year when she reached the fourth round of the French Open, for the first time in her career. The next year, she made it to the final of the Thailand Open, which was also her first WTA Tour final.

She became an Australian citizen in 2018 and the next year, she reached her career’s highest ranking, no.39 on April 1, 2019. She also reached her fourth WTA final and made her top 40 debut this year.

Since then, she has reached three Grand Slam quarterfinals, including the US Open 2022.