Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic made history in the French Open yesterday by upsetting third seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4 in the third round.
The defeat meant that the tournament’s top three seeds had all been ousted inside six days, with top seed Serena Williams losing in the second round and second seed Li Na departing in the first.
It was the first Grand Slam in the Open era where the top three women seeds all failed to make the last 16.
Photo: AFP
Ranked 72nd in the world, 21-year-old Tomljanovic is to play 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain for a place in the quarter-finals. Suarez Navarro yesterday stopped US teenager Taylor Townsend’s run at the French Open 6-2, 6-2.
Fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania is the top seeded player left in the draw, having reached the third round on Thursday.
“After seeing the first two seeds go out you kinda feel like — hey I can do that too. I grew up with these girls that were doing that,” the Florida-based Tomljanovic said.
Photo: Reuters
“I went out out there and I really felt that I could win. It showed and that was how I won. I have a fourth round next and obviously happy, but I do not want to get too happy about it either,” she added.
Tomljanovic ended last year ranked 78th in the world, improving from 495th — the biggest ranking improvement by any player in the top 100.
This year she lost in the third round at the Australian Open, but more recently failed to qualify for the main draw at Madrid and Rome in the buildup to Roland Garros.
For Radwanska it was the first time she had failed to make it past the third round at a Grand Slam event since the 2012 French Open.
Last year she was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, a quarter-finalist at the Australian and French Opens and made the fourth round at the US Open.
Watched by Croatian 1997 French Open winner Iva Majoli, Tomljanovic quickly took control of a match played in front of a sparse center-court crowd.
She jumped out to take a 5-1 lead before a shell-shocked Radwanska managed to break serve and get back to 5-4.
The Croatian made no mistake on serve in the following game though and an early break in the second set sent her on the way to the biggest win of her career.
While newcomer Tomljanovic was making the headlines on center court, veteran Australian Samantha Stosur was stealthily moving through the draw out on the Suzanne Lenglen court.
The 19th seed, a finalist at Roland Garros in 2010, pulled off an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia to reach the last 16, where she will play 2012 champion Maria Sharapova if the Russian defeated Paula Ormaechea of Argentina in her third round tie later yesterday.
Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, had too much firepower for the diminutive Cibulkova, taking an early lead in the first set and staying ahead after that.
The Australian lost to Sharapova in the third round of the Madrid Masters earlier this month, having also defeated Cibulkova in the previous round.
“I love playing here and have had some great moments and some of the best matches in my career, so hopefully I can still have a few more matches this year,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the men’s competition, Andy Murray cruised into the third round on Thursday by outclassing Australia’s Marinko Matosevic.
Seventh seed Murray, the Wimbledon champion, produced a masterclass to win an entertaining, although one-sided, match 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 against Matosevic, who was playing in the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Briton Murray, who will have a sterner test against Germany’s 28th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round, was inevitably quizzed yet again on who would be his next coach following his split with Ivan Lendl.
“When the time is right I will make an announcement,” he said.
Latvian wild child Ernests Gulbis booked a fourth-round spot yesterday and a possible date with Roger Federer, the man he blasted as “boring” at Roland Garros last year.
Gulbis, the 18th seed, won a fractious third-round clash against Czech veteran Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 in the Court One bullring to make the last 16 for the first time since 2008.
He will next tackle fourth-seeded Federer, should the 2009 champion get past Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov.
Twelve months ago, Gulbis caused controversy when he described the sport’s big four of Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as boring.
He especially pointed the finger at Federer, claiming that post-match interviews were becoming so polite and inoffensive that the fire in the belly of the sport was being doused.
“I respect Roger, Rafa, Novak and Murray but, for me, all four of them are boring players. Their interviews are boring. Honestly, they are c----,” Gulbis said.
“It is Federer who started this fashion. He has a superb image of the perfect Swiss gentleman. I respect Federer, but I don’t like it that young players try to imitate him. When I hear them answer like Roger, I am terrified by phrases like ‘I had a little bit more success at certain moments and that is how I won.’”
Gulbis and Federer last met in Rome in 2010, three years before the 25-year-old Latvian unleashed his Paris tirade.
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