By Sudipto Ganguly
LONDON (Reuters) – The number of people trusting Ajla Tomljanovic’s abilities would have grown enormously after the Australian reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon last year but her father was not one of them.
Finding a place to stay in London during Wimbledon is a hard task but the 29-year-old Tomljanovic had to go through the ordeal and find a hotel room as her father had booked a house for her only until Friday.
“I don’t know if you have heard, but I had to like move accommodations, so now I’m in this cute little hotel that’s actually close to the courts,” Tomljanovic said on Saturday when asked about her plans before her fourth-round match.
The 44th-ranked Tomljanovic defeated 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, seeded 13th, 2-6 6-4 6-3 to book her spot in the last 16 against top-ranked Iga Swiatek or France’s Alize Cornet.
Asked why she had to shift to a hotel, Tomljanovic said: “Because my dad booked my house until Friday. Yeah, it’s a really good question.
“I was like, ‘You thought I’d lose second round’. I’m not really satisfied being in third round and then moving houses.
“The problem was it’s so hard to find something. London is packed, and I didn’t want to stay an hour away. He didn’t take it well. I gave him a lot of crap yesterday.”
Tomljanovic was, however, not sure where she will stay if she reaches the last eight again.
“Funny enough, today when I finished, he’s like, ‘Oh, I have to book again’. I was, like, ‘You’re kidding me’,” she said, smiling.
“He wasn’t kidding, but he managed to book the same hotel, so I have a room probably until Tuesday, but I don’t care.
“He’s like, ‘Ajla’, something like, ‘Hungry rats swim the fastest’. Whatever that means. Like some old fatherly saying. I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not a rat and I’m not hungry. I just want my house from the beginning till the end, or maybe you should just believe in me a little more.”
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Ed Osmond)
