Ajla Tomljanovic was left cursing her trust in the system after suffering a gut-wrenching three-set Australian Open loss to former world No.1 Garbine Muguruza.
While the scoreline was 6-3 3-6 6-3, Tomljanovic believed little separated the players in their round two clash on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
“I thought I was in it until the last point was finished but it didn’t go my way,” the Australian No.2 said.
“I feel like I lost by one point.”
And indeed there was one point in particular which could have turned things in her favour.
Serving at 2-1 in the first set, Tomljanovic chose not to challenge an incorrect baseline overrule by umpire Marija Cicak that had a devastating outcome, with the Australian then dropping her serve.
Instead of leading 3-1, Tomljanovic was at 2-2 and went on to lose the next three games with two-time major champion Muguruza taking control of the set.
Another Cicak overrule in the third set was also shown by television replays to be wrong, but it didn’t have such dire consequences.
The 26-year-old only heard the news about the umpire errors from a journalist in a post-match press conference.
“What? Are you serious,” Tomljanovic said.
“No way, that was in? The one on the baseline? I just have too much faith in Cicak.
“I probably shouldn’t have done that. Wow, that just really did not make my day better.
“Now I’m like literally going to challenge every overrule.”
Despite testing a player of the calibre of Muguruza, Tomljanovic was far from satisfied although she felt she tracking in the right direction.
The loss extended her miserable grand slam record, only advancing beyond the second round once in 22 appearances, having reached the round of 16 at the 2014 French Open.
“Playing a tough match with a player like Garbine does nothing for my confidence – I go out there expecting to win because I train for this,” she said.
“Winning would do something but at the same time I’m on the right path.
“Any week could be my week if I continue to play this sort of way and don’t get down on myself.”
