She seems to be talented, had lost in Zagreb to Hladikova who played a great match, attacking on every opportunity and not missing at all.
Ajla didn't play at all, she just couldn't relax at all.
Here's video of her groundstrokes from that match: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5cckl_ajla-tomljanovic-in-zagreb-challeng_sport
She was playing the G1 Juniors tournament in Essen,Germany which is next to my place. She is quite tall for a 15y old, thats what I thought, too.
She had some problems against some czech girl and had to go for three sets. It was one of the only matches at the tournament where the 2 girls were able to hit really hard and flat already, it was quite good to watch because both did not make to many mistakes and had some nice ralleys. Ajla too often tried to play drop shots, but these were not good enough so Hancova was able to get these. She also was not playing very aggressive and always waited for Hancova to make some faults(which did not happen at least in 2nd set). Hancova was even dictating the ralleys most of the times. I think she has too work on her serve, to make it more effective and just has to start to play her own game, not just reacting to the opponent. She definetely has the strokes for that.
Ajla is a daughter of well known handball player Ratko Tomljanovic. Ajla and her parents moved to the states last year and Ajla trains in Florida (Bollitieri's camp)...
Ajla is playing juniors at the US Open this year. She just won her R1 match; she beat American Lauren Davis 63 62.
Unfortunately for her, in R2 she'll probably play the top seed, Arantxa Rus, who has a WTA ranking of 220. Then again, maybe not: Arantxa is currently down 46 01 in her match against Kamenskaya...
She beat Kamenskaya in hard match 26 76(5) 63. She was loosing 5:4 in tie break and russian had 2 serves but Ajla didn't give up. Now she play against Gail Brodsky, well known player. Hope she can suprise and get into QF.
Despite the lost very good performance from Ajla...She won 2 single matches... Good result because this was her fisr junior grand slam and she was the youngest girl left in the 3rd round. Ajla has turned 15 recently...
In the SF, she'll have her toughest test yet, against Craciun (#404; career-high #246; #2 seed). Regardless, she'll be ranked for the first time after this tournament. If she loses in the SF, she'll be ~#1000; if she wins, she'll be ~#970.
It looks like playing in Mexico was a good idea as the draw is very week (no qualies, many unranked players in the MD, only five players in the top 500). There's another $10K in Mexico City next week and Ajla is again on the entry list.
Best of luck to Ajla. Fans of Croatian women's tennis need something to celebrate!
Unfortunately, Ajla lost to Craciun, though she did manage to win a set: 64 26 62. Still, it was an excellent tournament for Ajla. Let's see what she does next week.
Ajla has qualified for this week's $10K in Mexico City. She only had to play one match, which she won 60 60.
In R1 of the MD she plays a Mexican, Arias-Rodriguez (#839; career-high #683). It's winnable as long as Ajla plays like she did last week.
By the way, Ajla wasn't the only Croat to qualify for the MD. So did Nikolina Grbac, an unranked 15-year-old. In R1 she plays Dominika Dieskova (SVK; #769; career-high #762; #8 seed).
Ajla made it into the rankings for the first time this week. She's at #1004. With her single point from last week's $10K in Mexico City she'll move into the 900's next week.
Ajla is playing juniors this week, at the Dunlop Orange Bowl in Florida. She's the #4 seed and has won three matches to get into the QF. In R3 she beat Allie Will, who's #597 on the WTA rankings, in straights so that's a good result for Ajla.
It's quite a line-up in the QFs:
Ana BOGDAN (ROU) (1) Vs Sloane STEPHENS (USA)
Daria GAVRILOVA (RUS) Vs Christina MCHALE (USA)
Lauren EMBREE (USA) (11) Vs Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (CRO) (4)
Julia BOSERUP (USA) Vs Laura ROBSON (GBR) (2)