Ajla Tomljanovic's brilliant comeback to tennis has hit a new peak as the Australian ace reached her first ever WTA grass-court final in the Birmingham Classic to stand on the verge of the biggest triumph of her 15-year career.
Tomljanovic's 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over Russian seventh seed Anastasia Potapova in the pre-Wimbledon tournament at Edgbaston on Saturday left the 31-year-old quite emotional, as she clenched her fists tight and looked to the heavens.
"I definitely didn't expect to play a final here. I really take it one match at a time, as cliched as it is," beamed the player who was Australian No.1 this time last year before a series of injury, illness and surgery setbacks saw her world ranking plummet to its current 190.
But Tomljanovic, the Australian no.10, stands to shoot back to No.3 while soaring back to No.116 in the world should she defeat old Kazakh rival Yulia Putintseva in Sunday's unexpected matchup between two non-seeds.
It's also a fantastic boost for Tomljanovic as she prepares for Wimbledon, where she's twice reached the quarter-final, before representing Australia at the Paris Olympics.
"Whenever I've done well, I've never looked ahead, and I'm not going to do it now either," she said.
"I'm going to do my best to prepare, give it my all tomorrow, and when it's over, reflect on the week."
After missing most of 2023 with a knee injury and requiring surgery this year to remove uterine fibroids, it would represent an extraordinary achievement if Tomljanovic was to lift a WTA crown in her 180th main draw.
Her record against Putintseva, who's as feisty on court as she's cheerful off it, is not great, having lost four of their five meetings, but they've never played on grass, and Tomljanovic is striking the ball beautifully on her favoured surface after only being back for the past month following four months sidelined.
Tomljanovic did win a WTA 125 event in Brazil at the end of last year, but that's seen by the women's governing body as effectively a second-tier 'Challenger' trophy, so victory at Edgbaston Priory would be considered Tomljanovic's first tour-level title after losing four previous finals.
Her victory over world No.36 Potapova was surprisingly bloodless.
Tomljanovic dominated early on, cashing in on a series of early double faults from the Russian, who dished up seven in all.
Tomljanovic was broken when serving for the set at 5-4, yet held her nerve better in the subsequent tiebreak as the often erratic Potapova made two backhand errors to gift the stanza to the Australian.
After the match went with serve in the second, scoreboard pressure again cranked up on Potapova, Tomljanovic breaking her to 15 to annex the victory in just over an hour-and-a-half.
"I just tried to keep a cool head. I felt like I was a bit too into it at the beginning, and was losing a lot of energy just caring about every single point," Tomljanovic said.
"I just tried to let go whatever happened, and focus on what I can control."
Earlier, world No.41 Putintseva had cashed in on an error-ridden display by Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto, winning 6-2 6-2 in the opening semi-final.
