Daria Gavrilova, Russian Australian Tennis Super Star, Not Yet Content

Of course it is nice to be the new Big Girl on the Australian block, especially since the Aussies love their tennis and Daria Gavrilova, a Melbourne resident, appears to be making her move at just the right time.

Blessed with golden locks and a peaceful smile, it’s easy to fall in love with Daria’s beauty and her tennis game.

The Australian tennis world certainly has.

Daria Gavrilova is an Australian professional tennis player of Russian descent. She represented Russia until 2015, before immigrating to Australia.

Nicknamed Dasha, Ms. Gavrilova has won one WTA singles and one WTA doubles title, and has additionally won four singles and two doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career.

2016 proved to be a very pivotal year for our rising star.

Ms. Gavrilova began her season playing at the 2016 Hopman Cup in the Australia Green team, alongside Nick Kyrgios. In the round robin stage of the tournament, her only singles win was over Sabine Lisicki, however she and Kyrgios were undefeated in the mixed doubles stage of each tie.

In their tie against France, Daria saved a match point in the mixed doubles event when Australia was down 8-9 in the match tiebreak. They went on to win the match in three sets, securing their place in the final.

She and Nick Kyrgios were the eventual champions of the tournament, defeating the Ukrainian team of Elina Svitolina and Alexandr Dolgopolov in both singles matches. This was only the second time that the Australian team has won the Hopman Cup, the first time being in 1999.

In the 2016 Australian Open she had wins against Lucie Hradecká, Petra Kvitová, and Kristina Mladenovic.

On August 28, 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 20. On 25 September 2017, she peaked at world number 45 in the doubles rankings.

Daria was a very accomplished junior player, having won the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and 2010 US Open, also reaching a combined career-high junior ranking of world number one in August of 2010.

You see, not only can she play with the big girls, she can beat them too.

Throughout her career, Daria has achieved victories against former Grand Slam champions Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Angelique Kerber (her first victory over a reigning world number 1), and Petra Kvitová (twice), with all of these players being ranked in the Top 10 at the time.

In August, Daria won her first WTA title, the 2017 Connecticut Open in New Haven, defeating Dominika Cibulková in three sets.

We are extremely infatuated. We want more. As the Spinners so wistfully sang, could it be we’re falling in love?

At wtatennis.com they share that she loves to hit with her forehand and prefers the hard courts.

In terms of fun, Daria likes sushi, cheese, ramen and watching SpongeBob SquarePants.

You’ll get a kick out of her warm up video too. This girl knows how to have fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2XxL_1MAj4

“Daria Gavrilova and Daria Kasatkina’s unorthodox warmup | Australian Open 2018”

In her interviews she adds that she loves long rallies because they enhance her mental toughness.

After watching her matches we fully agree.

Now for some statistics and itftennis.com are happy to provide them for us.

Current Singles Ranking	24 (May 15, 2018)
Career High Singles Ranking	20 (28/08/2017)
Current Doubles Ranking	56
Career High Doubles Ranking	45 (25/09/2017)
Singles Year End (2017)	25
Doubles Year End (2017)	55

And…….

Current Year Singles (ATP*/WTA and ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	35	24
Current Year Doubles (ATP*/WTA and ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	14	14
Career Singles (ATP*/WTA Tour and ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	165	126
Career Doubles (ATP*/WTA Tour and ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	47	51
Career Singles (ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	76	49
Career Doubles (ITF Pro Circuit main draw)	20	12

Daria has many admirers from around the world including Yonex, the manufacturer of the tennis racquets she uses as her artistic weapons.

Yonex praises her recent accomplishments at their Facebook. “Congratulations to Australia’s Daria Gavrilova and Magdalena Rybarikova – Official of Slovakia, who reached the finals at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open and the WTA LINZ, respectively.

Both players compete with #Yonex’s new #EZONE, a powerful racquet with an enhanced sweet spot and vibration-absorbing technology for unmatched comfort.”

For those of us who have battled it out on the courts, we love the feel of a Yonex racquet in our hands. They make us feel better than we actually are.

In December of 2015, Daria switched nationalities (and representation) from Russia to Australia.

In today’s world where global migration is becoming the norm, there is quite an established Russian community in Australia.

The 2006 Census revealed Australia had a Russian-born population of 15,354. Most Russian-born residents live in Melbourne (5,407) or Sydney (5,367). A significant portion of Russian-born residents are women (62%), and most (69%) had arrived in Australia no earlier than 1990.

Also at the 2006 Census 67,055 Australian residents declared that they had Russian ancestry, either alone or in combination with one other ancestry.

So, where there is a Russian community, there must be a great Russian restaurant in Melbourne and we think we have found just the one.

We are welcomed to dine at nevsky.com.au. “Experience the delights of Russia and Eastern Europe with traditional fare and the culinary extravagance of the Tsars.

The restaurant is named after the famous main boulevard of Saint Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt – home of our Chef and a magnificent city full of culture, architecture and history. Fully licensed, Nevsky will impress with our range of premium and flavored vodkas, cocktails, wines and imported beers.

Nevsky’s menu is predominately gluten-free and suitable for coeliacs, with the exception of the obvious items. We are more than happy to amend or substitute suitable menu components, where possible, to meet dietary requirements.”

That’s sounds delicious.

Watching Daria play is a very enticing experience as well.

Increasingly a record breaking one too.

At the 2017 US Open, on August 31, theguardian.com reported, “Daria Gavrilova has suffered US Open heartbreak, losing the longest women’s match in history at Flushing Meadows, a three-hour, 33-minute epic. The 25th seed fought off four match points before succumbing 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) to big-hitting American Shelby Rogers in their grueling second-round contest.

Gavrilova showcased her signature fighting spirit in a high-quality and rollercoaster encounter featuring 11 service breaks, 76 winners, 111 unforced errors , a 90-minute deciding set and a warm embrace between the two exhausted combatants at the net.”

Given the way Daria is battling, fans of women’s professional tennis should stay on red alert. She has exceptional accomplishments yet clearly is not content.