Luckless Ajla Tomljanovic has created her own small but unwanted piece of tennis history as the first Australian to bow out of a grand slam tournament in a super-tiebreaker.
The world No.47 dropped serve only once in her opening-round Australian Open clash against Britain’s Johanna Konta but still found herself on the wrong end of a 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-6 (10-7) scoreline in a marathon lasting two hours and 51 minutes.
This year marks the first time that the Australian Open has opted for first-to-10 points tiebreakers to decide matches, rather than the traditional advantage system.
It means all four majors now use different formats to decide close encounters.
“I don’t mind breakers in general; I just wish there was more consistency with the slams,” said the 25-year-old Tomljanovic.
“I feel like everyone just wants to be different.
“But I didn’t lose today because of that.”
Instead, Tomljanovic was left to run a lack of aggression at crucial moments in the third set against the Australian-born Konta, who embarked on a thrilling run to the semis at Melbourne Park three years ago.
“I hate losing in general but here it’s even worse,” said Tomljanovic.
“I had a tough first round, she’s a great player and she played a high level throughout the whole match.
“In the third set I was always the one up on serve and I didn’t get any looks at all on her serve.
“I thought I just hung in there and in the important moments I maybe wasn’t aggressive enough.
“I guess she took control more or wanted it more.”
Konta’s second-round opponent will be Spanish No.18 seed Garbine Muguruza, who ousted Zheng Saisai from China 6-2 6-3.