James Duckworth and Ajla Tomljanovic are continuing to enjoy a late-season surge in Asia, coming through qualifying at events in Kazakhstan and China to reach the quarterfinals after a blizzard of matches.
The ever-willing qualifier Duckworth, still going strong at 33 despite an injury list that would have sunk lesser athletes, enjoyed his best victory of the year, knocking out last year's finalist Gabriel Diallo 7-6(3) 6-7(3) 6-4 in the last-16 of the Almaty Open in his fourth match in five days.
Meanwhile, former Australian No.1 Tomljanovic – who will surge back into the WTA's top 100 next week – beat Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez 7-6(6) 6-3 in her last-16 contest on Wednesday, also her fourth win in five days at China's Ningbo Open.
Duckworth heads another strong contingent of Australians at the Kazakhstan event where he reached the final back in 2021, the year after compatriot John Millman had won there.
He's the first to make the quarterfinals with both Adam Walton and Aleksandar Vukic facing tough last-16 matches on Thursday.
Diallo, the 24-year-old Canadian who has moved up to No.35 in the world, represented a considerable win for Duckworth, ranked more than 100 places lower.
Yet the Aussie served well and remained unbroken all match to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Flavio Cobolli, the rising Italian No.3 seed who defeated another Sydneysider – lucky loser Rinky Hijikata – 6-4 7-5 on Wednesday.
Just like Duckworth, the 32-year-old Tomljanovic has appeared to thrive on a hectic schedule, winning her fourth match of the week in Ningbo on Wednesday even though she started slowly against Sonmez, going 5-0 down in the opening set and facing a set point at 2-5 before rallying dramatically.
Tomljanovic, ranked 104th but currently 86th in the live rankings, then held toughest in a nervy second set where serve was broken five times in a row.
"I really need to start starting better in matches, but I'm winning, so I'll take it,” said Tomljanovic, who also dropped the first set 6-1 in her previous win over Clara Tauson.
"Zeynep is such a tough player. We've practised together quite a few times, and I always know it's going to be a tough match against her. She's such a great athlete.
"I'm just really happy that I was able to come back and play a good level until the end."
It marks Tomljanovic's third quarterfinal of the season and her first at WTA 500-level or above since the 2022 US Open, where, famously, she beat Serena Williams en route to the last eight in what was to be the great champion's last match.
It's now set to get much harder for Tomljanovic, who'll next face either No.3 seed Elena Rybakina or Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the quarters.
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