Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic has backed up her win over Serena Williams by taking down the red-hot Liudmila Samsanova 7-6(8), 6-1 to advance to her maiden quarter-final at the US Open.
Shortly after Nick Kyrgios took down World No. 1 and defending champion Daniil Medvedev, Ajla Tomljanovic claimed victory which breaks a 38 year drought since the last time there was an Australian in both the men's and women's US Open quarterfinals - Wendy Turnbull and Pat Cash in 1984.
Serving at 4-5 in the opening set, Tomljanovic saved a whopping seven break points in a service game which spanned 12 deuces and more than 14 minutes. After the set was eventually sent into a tiebreaker, Tomljanovic saved another set point (her eighth) and went on to eventually steal the set 10-8.
Tomljanovic carried the momentum into the second set and blazed away to take it 6-1, securing her spot in back-to-back quarterfinals at Grand Slam level, after reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
“It was huge. I came out feeling pretty flat and I was thinking to myself, the last 48 hours has been a lot,” she said. “But something within me was saying, ‘this is not where I want to stop. I need to give, even if I go down, a little more fight’," Tomljanovic said in her post-match interview.
"The fact that I won, I'm still a little speechless."
"I think it's just about staying in the moment," she said.
It's a maiden quarter-final at the US Open for Tomljanovic, eclipsing her best performance before this year in New York, which came last year when she reached the third round.