Last Friday was the 13th, an unlucky Friday for Antonia Ruzic. In her first Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship qualifying round, she led Rebecca Slamkova 7-5, 5-4 with six match points, but ultimately lost 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.
But it didn’t take long for Ruzic’s luck to turn around. Five days and some twists of fate later, the 23-year-old Croatian is still in Dubai, playing her first WTA 1000 quarter-final after top seed Jelena Rybakina withdrew in the third round, trailing 5-7, 6-4, 1-0.
The first development is a flurry of withdrawals before the main draw action begins. Ruzic was the 6th lucky loser (out of a total of 7) to be drawn, replacing Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Ironically, Coccharetto reached the Doha quarterfinals last week as the lucky loser. The Italian qualified for Dubai, but was forced to withdraw due to a right thigh injury.
Still, Ruzic, who was ranked 67th and was eliminated in the first round of qualifying, shouldn’t have competed for the lucky loser spot. However, three of the second-round losers – Sonay Kartal, Katie Vorinets and Veronika Erjavec – have already left town, making her the highest-ranking first-round loser to sign in.
Ruzic then made his own fortune in the main draw. She earned her first career top-30 win over Emma Laducane in the first round, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, bouncing back from a 5-3 lead in the second set and coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the deciding match. With a 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-1 victory over fellow lucky loser Anastasia Zakharova, Ruzic set up Rybakina’s first meeting with a top-10 opponent, but the match remained close until two sets before gastrointestinal issues forced the Australian Open champion to call off the match.
After a wild week, Ruzic (known as Tonka to his friends and family) spoke to wtatennis.com about his top 100 feat, what it was like competing with Naomi Osaka dressed as a jellyfish, and his karate career.
Ruzic stayed in Dubai in search of sunshine…and got a second chance
Reflecting on the six match points she took against Sramkova in qualifying, Ruzic gives credit to her opponent.
“She played really well against them,” she said. “But then I was devastated.”
The singles main draw was the furthest thing from her mind. Instead, she stayed on as she was an alternate in the first doubles with compatriot Petra Marcinko. (They also competed in the main tournament, but lost in the first round to Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva.)
“And even after a few days in the sun, it didn’t hurt at all,” she said with a smile. “And gradually, day by day, I came in as the lucky loser, and I realized that I was playing Raducanu.”
It wasn’t just about winning a round in the main tournament, it was also an opportunity to correct what went wrong after losing in the preliminary round.
“If you’re a lucky loser, there’s not as much pressure. You get a second chance,” she says. “So I just want to play and I want to play better than I played yesterday and I want to keep playing. [In qualifying]I think I started thinking about a lot of things. It’s not good to think too much on the court. And against Laducanu, I was like, “OK, be at every point, fight for every point, just hit the ball.” that’s it. Don’t think about it, just hit the ball. That’s your game. Enter the courtroom. ”
Ruzic played against Naomi Osaka in her jellyfish costume at the Australian Open.
Four-time major champion Naomi Osaka dominated the headlines during the first few days of last month’s Australian Open, entering the first round in a jellyfish-inspired outfit designed by Robert Wang.
Ruzic was her opponent — and during the match, she grabbed some of the spotlight on her 23rd birthday, playing a great game before losing to Osaka 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
As Ruzic waited to be called into court, he didn’t even notice the veiled figure nearby.
“We were standing in the hallway, [but] “There was a mirror,” she recalled. “So I didn’t see two of her, I saw four of her. And I thought, is this an opening or a show? Because I couldn’t see any faces, and I thought there were four of her. And they said, ‘Okay, Naomi, you can go.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s her! ‘That’s what I thought.’
Ruzic is a fan of Osaka’s use of fashion as a way to express herself and was a big fan of the show court atmosphere at her first Grand Slam.
“I think it was the most amazing experience,” she said. “The crowd was great and I’m happy with the way we played that game. And of course it gave us more experience and more confidence to play in the second half of the season.”
Ruzic has gradually risen to prominence over the past two years.
Over the past two years, Ruzic has steadily risen on the WTA Tour with Mercedes-Benz. She made her tour-level debut at Monastir 2024 and quickly reached the quarterfinals, helping to lower her year-end ranking from 268th to 145th. She broke into the top 100 last June, reached her first WTA 500 quarterfinal in Monterrey, made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the US Open, and finished the season in 75th place. Last month, Ruzic continued to hit milestones, reaching the semifinals for the first time in Hobart.
“People say my career is progressing gradually,” Ruzic said. “So there was no need to rush anything. And yeah, I’m happy where I am right now.”
As Ruzic’s ranking rose, her strategy was to participate in as many WTA 1000 qualifying draws as possible to get used to the environment. Last year, she qualified for four WTA 1000 main draws, winning rounds in Rome, Montreal, Beijing and Wuhan.
“It’s our first time, so we have to adjust and get to know all the players, all the teams, all the facilities,” she said.
As a hard-hitting player who likes to go for fast-paced winners, Ruzic has found his greatest success to date on the fastest court on tour.
“It’s really fast here,” she said approvingly of Dubai. “I think it’s probably the fastest on tour.”
Tennis appealed to Ruzic more than karate.
Ruzic loves nothing more than spending time at home with her pets (she has a poodle named Abby and several cats) or enjoying the cafe culture of her hometown of Čakovec in northern Croatia. (Her order of choice is a flat white with oat milk.) But another childhood passion may have taken her life in a completely different direction.
“I’m a two-time national karate champion,” she revealed. “When I was 12 or 13, it was two times in a row, and I had to choose between tennis and karate.
“Tennis was my first love, so I started playing tennis. Then I started karate when I was in the second or third year of junior high school. At first, it was just for fun, but when I went to tournaments and things like that, it became serious.”
“But I think my love for tennis was bigger. That’s why I chose tennis.”