Australian Ajla Tomljanovic will be out to continue her good run of form at Wimbledon, but it won’t come easy in the first round as she takes on powerful American Madison Keys. Join The Roar for live scores of the match, starting from 10:30pm (AEST).
The Aussie had a strong clay court season, but a poor French Open where she was bundled out in the first round by Elina Svitolina – of course, no shame in that.
She has copped another tough draw here against the 11th seed, but will be somewhat confident with the form on clay transferring to the grass. Bringing a quarter-final run in Mallorca into the third grand slam of the year, Tomljanovic has moved her ranking up to 65 after spending the majority of last year languishing outside 100 due to injuries and form.
Her will to fight back, as well as the prodigious talent the 25-year-old Croatian-born Australian showed during her younger years will certainly help during this year’s Wimbledon campaign at the All England Club.
Unfortunately for Tomljanovic, Keys has been unrelenting in the last 12 months. She is yet to break through and win a grand slam, having lost the US Open final to Sloane Stephens last year, before recently making the semi-final at this year’s French Open.
She hasn’t played any lead-up tournaments on grass though, so that may hamper her early in this game against Tomljanovic, but beating some of the best players in tennis on a surface that doesn’t neccesarily suit her game leaves the American in good stead.
Prediction
You’d expect Keys to canter through this match, as she did in the first round at Wimbledon last year against another Aussie at the same stage of the French Open last year in the form of Ash Barty. It may not be straightforward, but Tomljanovic isn’t going to win.
Keys in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this match from around 10:30pm (AEST) on Court 3 or at the conclusion of Sam Querrey versus Jordan Thompson and don’t forget to add a comment in the section.