Australia’s top-ranked female, Ajla Tomljanovic, has revealed she will miss “a few months” after a “minor procedure” on her knee that forced her to withdraw from the Australian Open.
Coming off a career-best season in which she made two consecutive grand slam quarterfinals, the 29-year-old pulled out of her home major two days before its commencement due to a knee injury.
In a post on social media on Saturday, the world No.35 revealed she had undergone surgery.
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“This morning I had a minor procedure done on my knee that went very well,” she wrote.
“Sadly I won’t be around the next few months, but I’m happy I did the necessary steps to get fully healthy.
“Great things take time and rehab starts very soon! I can’t wait to get back out there.”
Tomljanovic’s injury was followed up by another hammer blow to local hopes when Australia’s top-ranked male, Nick Kyrgios, withdrew after a lateral meniscus injury.
Both players featured in the Netflix tennis documentary ‘Break Point’, with nine of the ten players involved so far all either injured or eliminated from the Australian Open, with only Felix Auger-Aliassime remaining.
Social media grew increasingly fascinated by the ‘Netflix Curse’, prompting Tomljanovic herself to respond.
“Can we stop with the Netflix curse lol… it’s just sports,” she wrote in reply to a tweet mentioning the term.
Auger-Aliassime said after his third-round win on Friday he could see the funny side of the ‘curse’.
“My girlfriend showed me today. I wasn’t aware,” he said.
“I was aware that players were losing, I’d see players were losing, but it didn’t cross my mind until she showed me the thing this morning. I thought it was funny…
“Maybe the players that lost, maybe they do feel like it‘s connected somehow. I don’t think they do. I don’t think it’s connected anyhow. But, yeah, so funny how things work out sometimes.”
