Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

Ajla Tomljanovic, who upset her good friend Madison Keys at Stanford, says that it was not easy to split with the coach Dave Taylor just before Wimbledon.

The 22-year-old Tomljanovic worked with Taylor during the last year and a half, but the Aussie Taylor had to begin to work with the former US Open champion Sam Stosur in May. Taylor has helped Stosur for a number of years.

Tomljanovic is a Croatian, but she is trying to get an Australian citizenship. She has lived in the United States for many years and her parents live in Florida.

Tomljanovic said that Taylor did a very good job, but it was time to move on.

“Dave is a great coach and on court he really showed me level of intensity and I really appreciated that and there were so many positive,” Tomljanovic said.  “But it didn’t click all the way. I do believe he taught me will show sooner than later, but the expectations, he had or I had, I wasn’t getting there.
At the end of the day it results orientated and I kind of felt I stayed at one level. Maybe is was too long, maybe he couldn’t help me anymore and it was time for a change.”

At Stanford, Tomljanovic worked with the coach John Laffnie De Jager on a trial basis.

Tomljanovic said after she split with Taylor that she was pretty upset.

“I didn’t know really know what to do after that and now it’s my main goal to get back to a place where I start playing tennis because I love the sport,” she said.  “It became a job at one point and I hated that.”

Tomljanovic  said that during the start of the year that she felt pretty good overall, cracking the top 50 in February. But after that she sputtered. However she feels much better now.

“I’m not too satisfied,” said Tomljanovic , who is currently ranked No 69. “I am a bit negative about it. I thought I had a decent start to the year in the Aussie summer, I didn’t have a great results but I felt my game was there. I made it to the final at Pattaya City,  but it didn’t take off after that. I got sick, I lost confidence and I wasn’t winning a lot in the matches. You start thinking about things, like rankings, and that’s bad because you can’t control it, instead of focusing on yourself. After Wimby I started to regroup and now I feel like I am enjoying it again, which is the most important part.

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.