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Today’s ATX Open semifinals feature one matchup between two well-known players, recognizable even to casual tennis fans, while the other highlights two rising stars eager to make a name for themselves.
Top-seeded Jessica Pegula, ranked World No, 4 and a US Open 2024 finalist, will face wild card Ajla Tomljanovic, an Australian whose fanbase surpasses her current ranking of No. 111. They open play on Center Court at 1:30 p.m. The match is followed by fifth-seeded McCartney Kessler, a 25-year-old American who has shot into the top 50 world rankings this year, and Greet Minnen a 27-year-old Belgian just inside the top 100 but whose game suggests the possibility of much more.
Pegula, who celebrated her 31st birthday on Monday, and Tomljanović, who turns 32 in May, have been playing professional tennis since Minnen and Kessler were in grade school and first faced each other 16 years ago. Tomljanović, the rangy Australian, defeated Pegula in ITF Challenger events in 2009 and 2011. In 2024, they met in a tour match, with Pegula winning 7-6(8), 6-3 in the United Cup in Australia.
On Friday, Tomljanović survived a battle against qualifier Ena Shibahara, prevailing 10-8 in the third-set breaker. After needing eight match points and more than two and a half hours to advance, Tomljanović was asked when she would start thinking about her semifinal against Pegula. Being both frank and funny, she replied: “Like when I was up 6-3 in the breaker.”
Tomljanović, once ranked as high as No. 32 before being sidelined by injuries and illness, said the ATX Open semifinal is “a really good chance for me to face the top players.” She knows she’ll need better concentration against Pegula, who was dialed in defeating Anna Blinkova in under an hour in their quarterfinal match.
“It’s what you want – to test myself and see where I’m at,” Tomljanović said, “but I think it will be fun and the most important thing is that I go out there and feel good physically and kind of stick to my game.”
“Jess is gonna make it really tough for me.”
In her post-match interview with on-court announcer Kondo Simfukwe, Tomljanović acknowledged that she has days when “my mind is really good and it doesn’t jump to the future when I’m up three match points, and there are days like today where I’m already seeing myself talking to you after the match, and that’s what gets me in trouble because you can’t rest until it’s really over.”
“Then you get tentative, you stop doing what you’re supposed to do… It’s a roller coaster for two and a half hours, but this is what we choose to do. So, no excuses.”
Kessler almost needed that long to rally past tour veteran Sorona Cîrstea, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. The 25-year-old Kessler, who played at University of Florida for four and a half years, got plenty of fan support from the packed Center Court crowd. “After the first set, I was thinking about it – I was like, it’s a full stadium, I wanna stay out here a little longer, and it really helped me get to a third set,” she said.
This is her first tour meeting with Minnen, who spoiled the crowd’s wish for an all-American semifinal by beating Caroline Dolehide on Friday night. The Belgian, who calls grass her favorite surface, knows the fans will be pulling for Kessler, who has won two WTA 250 titles as her ranking has improved more than 100 spots in the past year.
“Another American – it’s gonna be another big battle,” Minnen said afterward. “She’s a very informed player. She’s been doing very well last year.”
Minnen said she appreciated that the pro-American crowd was so fair.
“Even [with me] playing an American, they were very supportive, very friendly, even cheering for good shots,” she said. “That’s always nice to play.”
