Ajla Tomljanovic and Kimberly Birrell have fallen short against an inspired Slovakia as Australia’s hopes for a fourth semifinal in five years end.
Malaga, Spain, 18 November 2024 | Dan Imhoff
Australia’s focus in Malaga will turn to the Davis Cup after its Billie Jean King Cup campaign ended against Slovakia in the quarterfinals.
The Australian team, a finalist as recently as 2022 and 2019, had aimed to reach the semifinals for the fourth time in five years, but fell 2-0 to their opponents, who had stunned a depleted United States in the round of 16.
World No.241 Viktoria Hruncakova downed Kimberly Birrell 7-5 6-7(7) 6-3 before in-form 43-ranked Rebecca Sramkova beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1 6-2 at Marten Carpena Arena.
Tomljanovic’s first-set on-court tumble, which required treatment on her left knee, compounded the difficult loss, but team captain Sam Stosur, in her first year at the helm, was proud of the team’s efforts.
A tough way to end our 2024 #BJKCup campaign 💔
Well done Ajla on fighting through to the end, and we wish you a speedy recovery 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Sp04JdZAwa
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 17, 2024
“I think Kim was very, very close to getting that first match our way, which was great. I thought it was a really good, quality match,” Stosur said. “That was unfortunate to be down 1-0, and then I think it was pretty obvious from 4-0 Ajla was really struggling.
“Yeah, it was a tough situation to then be trying to get ourselves back into the tie when clearly you can see that your No.1 player is pretty hampered out there. Yeah, not the way you ever want it to go.”
The 31-year-old Tomljanovic was back as the Australian No.1 after she picked up her second WTA 125 title in Hong Kong last month but struggled after a medical timeout in the opening set against Sramkova, who had upset world No.11 Danielle Collins in the Slovaks’ upset of the US.
“Definitely felt really hard to get back on track after that, because, you know, having a previous injury there, it never feels good to feel something go wrong,” the world No.85 said.
“I mean, I always bounce back, so I will, but it’s definitely a tough day, especially when it almost feels like I would have taken this a bit easier if it was just a regular tournament for myself, but you don’t want to let your teammates down.”
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World No.115 Birrell, who reached her maiden tour final in Osaka last month, battled for more than two-and-a-half hours before she went down to former top-50 player Hruncakova.
She conceded her opponent’s serve proved pivotal.
“I found it quite tough to make any inroads into her service games until I had a couple of chances in the second set, and in the third set, too. But, yeah, credit to her. I think she played really well, especially on the big points,” Birrell said.
“Yeah, I mean, I fought as hard as I could. I left everything out there. I think I did improve as the match went on, but I played against a quality player who just played better than me on the day.”
