World News – AU – Tomljanovic is about to overthrow Halep

Australian Ajla Tomljanovic almost managed to conquer the biggest scalp of her career2 Simona Halep in the second round of the Australian Open

Tomljanovic took a 5-2 lead in the third game and served for the match, but the reigning Wimbledon champion returned and won five games in a row to a 4-6-6-4-7-5 victory to secure

The 72 Tomljanovic used her big basic strokes to beat the Romanian, who was an Open semi-finalist last year and a 2018 finalist, but was excruciatingly neglected

Tom Bartjanovic, Ash Barty’s understudy in the local ranks, has longed for a big win and strong performance at her Grand Slam at home, where she never made it through the second round

Your best appearance with a major so far was a fourth-round appearance with Roland Garros in 2014

She seemed to have Halep, who is trained by Australian Darren Cahill, on the ropes when she broke in the third and was serving for the match

But the pressure rose on the 27-year-old and she saw her lead slip as the former senior Halep grew in faith

“I wasn’t that positive (at 5-2) but I think mentally I was a bit stronger than them,” Halep said

Halep said she knew the danger that Tomljanovic posed despite her lack of Grand Slam success

Their 2018 meeting at the Cincinatti Masters was eerily similar, when the Australian took an early lead before Halep triumphed again in three sets

Tomljanovic, Ajla Tomljanovic, Ajla Tomljanović, Halep