You could be forgiven for thinking the biggest stars in tennis have an inside scoop when it comes to knowing who their opponents will be at a grand slam tournament.

But when the Australian Open draw dropped earlier this week, Ajla Tomljanović looked up her first-round match-up the same way most of us would have — she googled it.

“The funny thing is I did that yesterday and [Ashlyn] Krueger came up and I was like, ‘Well clearly it (the draw) hasn’t come out because this is from Adelaide,'” she told ABC Sport with a chuckle.

“Then I found the article and I was like, ‘OK, now I need to double-check with someone because this is trippy if this is true.’

“It was actually pretty funny yesterday. I didn’t think it was real until someone confirmed it to me.”

Tomljanović revealed that not looking at the draw is a ploy she’s turned in the latter stages of her career, as she hopes to finally make a deep run at Melbourne Park.

A quarter-finalist at both the US Open and Wimbledon, Tomljanović has never made it past the second round at the Australian Open in 10 attempts. Her winning percentage of 36 per cent at Melbourne Park is the worst out of all four majors.

The 31-year-old’s talent has never been in question — she is the player who sent Serena Williams packing for good at Flushing Meadows just over two years ago. However, a combination of injury and confidence issues in her earlier years have halted Tomljanović’s progress.

Not looking at the draw is a major departure from Tomljanović’s tournament preparation earlier in her career, when she used to be a keen student of who would play who. She stopped doing that after it caused her to come undone.

“Even finding out the first round is nerve-wracking because out of 127 players there are a lot of potential match-ups you can get. It’s a real question mark when the draw comes out,” she said.

“Earlier in my career, I loved when the draw would come out. I would just study the whole thing.

“Then I got burnt a few times four or five years ago where I was up and then I was already stressing about the next round because I didn’t like how the opponent served and I ended up losing the match I was in and I was like, ‘Listen, if I can’t get my brain to work correctly, I’ll just take the draw out of it,’ and that’s just been my go-to now.”

Not looking at the draw makes up one part of what Tomljanović calls a fresh approach at this stage of her career.

Playing in front of your home crowd isn’t as easy as you would think. Even Ash Barty struggled under the weight of expectation at Melbourne Park before eventually breaking through in 2022 for the last of her three grand slam titles.

Yes, the support Australians get at home is great, but the weight of expectation can often prove to be a burden too great for a lot of players.

“I’m trying to use it to my advantage, where maybe this is how the stars have aligned in my career. I’m still trying to enjoy every chance I get to play and taking expectation out of it.

“That’s what I’ve done pretty much every single week I’ve done well. I didn’t think of anything past the first round.”

With Barty having prematurely retired, Tomljanović is now one of the older Australian stateswomen on the women’s tour.

There are no seeded Australian players in this year’s women’s singles draw. Tomljanović is one of a number of wildcards, while promising youngsters such as 16-year-old Emerson Jones are unseeded.

While another Aussie women’s grand slam title doesn’t appear imminent after Barty’s abrupt retirement in 2022, Tomljanović is bullish about what lies ahead.

“It’s in an exciting stage because we’ve got a few players who have been around the block, like myself, and we’re still capable of doing some damage,” she said.

“Then there’s this younger generation like Emerson and Liv [Gadecki] who have such a bright future.

“There is that middle [generation] like Kim Birrell, who are settling into their primes and it took some time. I think that’s all about belief because I had a similar path. To see Kim have such a big week in Brisbane and then come and back it up in the qualifiers, I can tell you first-hand that’s not an easy thing to do.

“There’s a lot of healthy competition in women’s tennis right now.”

Jones is one of a number of youngsters Tomljanović wants Australia to keep tabs on, a group that includes 18-year-old Maya Joint, 22-year-old Olivia Gadecki and 19-year-old Taylah Preston.

Despite being 15 years Jones’s senior, Tomljanović said she has been able to learn from Australia’s newest tennis prodigy.

“Someone like Emerson, I find myself learning from her,” she said.

“That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older in this sport — you can learn from anyone at any age.

“If she ever watched me play and learned something from me, that’s great, but watching her do so well in Adelaide and how she conducted herself, I thought I could learn from her as well. It’s just about constantly being open to learning new things.”

While winning a grand slam remains her biggest ambition, the importance of being a person for the next generation to look up to is not lost on Tomljanović.

“It’s probably the biggest compliment I can get if someone tells me that they look up to me,” she said.

“I definitely don’t assume I am that to all the kids, and when someone does tell me that, I’m so honoured. I’m just happy to see kids get involved.”

In the lead-up to the Australian Open, Tomljanović has worked with Tennis Australia on its #NoLimits Girls Squad and Learn2Lead youth programs.

It’s a program Tomljanović has stressed is “not just about hitting a tennis ball”.

“Just chatting to them about what we do and life is so beneficial at this age especially,” she said.

“I wish I had this when I was growing up. It would’ve been a bit more eye-opening so I wouldn’t have to just listen to my parents all the time.

“It makes them feel like anything is possible. They could be in our shoes one day.”

According to Tomljanović, many of the budding young players have the same burning question for her — how do you deal with losses and disappointments.

“I mostly get asked about losses, which I find interesting because it makes me think that even at that younger age they deal with that. I tend to forget a little bit how I used to be like that even when I was 10,” she said.

“I love answering that because I think when I was a younger kid I was very introverted and I was scared to tell anyone that I was nervous. I love talking about it and kind of normalising those feelings.

“It just means you care and if you can trick your mind into thinking it’s a good thing, it can really help you.

“My favourite thing is also telling them that I feel exactly the same way. If you see me playing in the stadium, I have a poker face, but know that I am feeling all the feelings.

Tomljanović credits her parents with helping her deal with disappointment — whether it be losses or injury issues — in a more effective manner.

“You don’t have to be another professional player or athlete to help me realise that things will work out at some point,” she said.

“My dad always taught me that life is a lot like sports in general, in that you’ve always got to pick yourself up even after you’ve had a tough day and the next day the sun comes up again and you give it a go and keep going because at some point things will work out.

“Just learning to never give up and put your all into whatever you’re doing.”

Tomljanović will kick off her Australian Open campaign with a first-round match against America’s Ashlyn Kreuger on Monday in what will be just the pair’s second career meeting.