An optimistic Ajla Tomljanovic believes her best tennis could still be in front of her despite a second-round elimination at the Australian Open.
Tomljanovic went down 6-4 7-5 in two tight sets against Russian 12th seed Diana Shnaider, who is coming off a breakout 2024 when she claimed four titles.
A persistent knee injury threatened to cruelly end the Australian's career, just as she was coming off a career-best 2022 season.
But the 31-year-old insists she is moving better than she has for a "long time".
"I'm feeling really, really good," Tomljanovic said.
"Like, I get scared to say it because I don't want to jinx it, but I've been feeling like this the last probably week.
"I definitely feel like myself again a little bit where I can actually play a match and think about tennis and not my body, so that's refreshing.
"I used to fear getting older and being in this stage of my career.
"But starting this year I feel really excited because I think that my best still could be in front of me.
"Judging from today, it gives me a lot of confidence to say that."
As buoyant as she is about her career in tennis, the difficult two years with injuries have given her time to plan her future off the court.
"I would love to be the one interviewing other people in the future," she said.
"I love talking to people that have done cool things in their life, and picking their brains.
"I also want to, when I do something, I want to give it my all.
"So now I'm just dabbling because tennis is 100 per cent still the priority for some time in the future.
"I don't really think about when is my time because I have way too much passion left for the game."
