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September 5, 2022,
All eyes were on Serena Williams.
Around the entire tennis world.
After her thorough victory over the number two seed, Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, in the second round, the impossible seemed possible, the unthinkable was now being thought and talked about.
Can she go all the way and capture that elusive 24th Grand Slam Title?
She seemed to being playing into fighting shape.
Then she met Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic and all of the speculation ended in a very convincing loss that, had Serena captured the first set, she could have won in straights.
After all, she led 4-0, in the second set.
CNN reported, “Serena Williams gave an emotional speech after what was likely her final tennis match Friday night, an over-three-hour 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the US Open.”
Three hours for any 40 year old is a very long time on the courts.
Ms. Tomljanovic kept wrong footing Serena with incredible blistering line drive shots for winner after winner until she hit the final one.
Is Serena completely retired?
She left the door open saying that she loved Australia.
Her matches broke attendance records at the 2022 US Open and most likely, if she decides to play, she’ll do the same in Australia.
Entering into more tournaments ahead of time would help Serena’s cause. From our vantage point, it was fatigue and lack of match play that eventually did her in.
Never about skill since she is the most skilled.
Which now brings us to the rest of the field.
Who do we see as the frontrunners?
Iga Swiatek, Danielle Collins, Coco Gauff are our top three.
The remaining field is filled with capable dark horses in Jessica Pegula, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka, Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova and Ons Jabeur.
The world’s number one, Iga Swiatek has to the odds on favorite.
Giant slayer Ajla Tomljanovic is a distant possibility. She continues to win, after all.
In the next round, the Round of 16, she defeated Russian star Ludmilla Samsonova in straight sets.
Time for a closer look at Ajla, who is playing some great tennis.
Ajla Tomljanović is an Australian professional tennis player.
She has won four singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
On February 21, 2022, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world Number 38.
A closer look reveals how good a player Ajla is and how tough it is to reach the top of the women’s tennis tour.
Ajla was an accomplished junior player, having won the 2009 Australian Open girls’ doubles title with Christina McHale. She reached a combined career-high junior ranking of world No. 4, on March 30, 2009.
Before 2014, our giant slayer played for her country of birth, Croatia.
She began competing for Australia at the 2014 US Open after obtaining permanent residency in Australia. For the next four years she was required to represent Croatia at all non-Grand Slam events, until she was granted Australian citizenship in January 2018, allowing her to represent the country at all events on the WTA Tour.
It appears the best is yet to come.
Possibly at this tournament.
With Serena out, this tournament is wide open.
Let’s start at the top.
Number one, Iga Swiatek is still playing lights out.
Ms. Swiatek has a potential path to a U.S. Open championship that does not include any past tournament champions. With Serena Williams transitioning into retirement following her loss here Friday, there’s not a single past champion still playing in the tournament.
We feel Iga is still the favorite to win this year’s Open but there are other players who are red hot as well.
Hard hitting American Danielle Collins, the Australian Open 2022 finalist, appears to be healthy and surging. She easily dismantled Naomi Osaka and thus far has blasted into the Round of 16, by defeating all of her opponents in straight sets.
In a battle with Alize Cornet, who also knocked out a former US Open champion, the team at tennis.com reported, “The 19th-seeded Collins hit a whopping 52 winners against Cornet and moved on to the round of 16 for the first time in her career to play Aryna Sabalenka.”
Defeating Aryna will be no easy task.
Aryna is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world Number two in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
She won two Grand Slam doubles titles, the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, alongside Elise Mertens. She has won 16 career titles in total, ten in singles and six in doubles.
Aryna is a big time player. This promises to be a huge showdown between her and Danielle.
The player quietly and steadily gaining attention is young 18 year old Coco Gauff.
She is not dominating but she is winning. In gritty fashion.
He 7-5, 7-5 win over Zhang Shuai was a slugfest.
Ms. Shuai was drilling one straight lined winner after another and it was all Coco could do to match her, powerful shot for powerful shot, but she did.
The insiders at usopen.org summarized, “The athletic Gauff, the youngest player remaining in the tournament, survived a tough challenge from the oldest, 33-year-old Zhang Shuai of China, 7-5, 7-5, to reach the quarterfinals for the first time at her home major.”
What has changed about Coco?
Previously, when we watched her tough matches, she would often crumble in the deciding set, like she did against Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open, in the fourth round, 7-6, 3-6, 0-6.
There was a pattern that when she met top players in the slams, she would get off to a good start but falter badly at the end. Time, age, experience and Coco’s increasingly tough internal makeup appears to have changed all of that.
An example of that is how she fought her way into the finals of the 2022 French Open where she lost to Iga Swiatek.
There is still Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula. Long shots but absolutely not to be counted out.
The excitement is building.
It’s the Round of 16.
Get ready for the showdowns.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling2.com Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com fcielitecompetitor.com Colin-McPhedran-Shutterstock-photo-Editorial-use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajla_Tomljanovi%C4%87
https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/rublev-tops-shapovalov-in-five-sets-us-open-updates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryna_Sabalenka
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
