Ajla Tomljanović vs America

[Mav]

In the Open era, the common saying is that you can’t win it in the 1st week but you can lose it in the 1st week. In other words, you have to finish off your 1st 3 or 4 opponents quickly or you end up banged up in the 2nd week. There’s an attritional aspect to having to play 7 games in 2 weeks. The top seeds might be expected to prevail in their first matches (but Haley fell in round 1) but the consequences show up in the 2nd week. If you told the top seeds they’d have byes in the 1st 3 rounds, almost all would be overjoyed.