Craig O’Donoghue: Ajla Tomljanovic deserves better than to not be seeded at the Australian Open tennis

Tennis rankings are no longer worth the paper they’re written on and the Australian Open has been heavily compromised by the ludicrous decision not to award rankings points at Wimbledon last year.

Make no mistake, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic has been horribly dudded and her entire year will be impacted by something that isn’t her fault.

The decision not to apply rankings points to Wimbledon due to Russian and Belarusian players being banned amid the war with Ukraine has had massive flow-on ramifications.

Rankings points are valid for 12 months. Missing out on points from one of the four grand slams has totally warped where players are positioned and had a dramatic impact on seedings for major tournaments.

There’s no imagination or wriggle room with Australian Open seedings.

Seedings are awarded in the same order as rankings and Tomljanovic missed a seeding by two rankings spots.

The final seeding went to Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann. In a horrible twist, Tomljanovic beat Teichmann in the first round at Wimbledon and went all the way to the quarterfinal.

Yet instead of leaving Wimbledon with a precious 430 rankings points while Teichmann received just 10, the tennis ladder totally ignored the results.

Even worse, despite not awarding rankings points, Wimbledon’s points from 12 months earlier still expired. That meant players who performed well in 2021 suffered more than those who were knocked out early, because they had more points to lose.

Teichmann who lost in the first round in 2021, entered Wimbledon ranked 23rd in the world, lost in the first round again and rose to No. 22.

Meanwhile, Tomljanovic made the quarterfinal and fell from 44 to 71 because she also made the quarters the previous year and didn’t get to replace those 430 points.

Seedings provide clear advantages which guarantee a player won’t face anyone else in the top 32 until the third round. The difference in prize money between a first round loss and a third round loss is $121,675. The difference in ranking points is 120 points.

Tomljanovic avoided facing a seed in the first round and should get past 192nd ranked Nadia Podoroska. But then she faces the winner of 2020 champion Sofia Kenin and the 24th seed – dual champion and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.

Meanwhile, if Teichmann gets past 96th ranked Harriet Dart, her opponent will be the winner of 85th ranked Zhu Lin and 66th ranked Rebecca Marino.

It’s had a major impact on the men too. Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios were the biggest rankings losers after playing off for the championship.

It’s wrong.

Tennis officials had other options that wouldn’t have had such a long-term impact on the tour. This was unique given the banned players weren’t at fault, but neither were those who competed and performed well, yet they’re being punished.