{"id":31740,"date":"2023-07-04T04:49:13","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=31740"},"modified":"2023-07-04T04:49:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:49:13","slug":"daria-saville-many-happy-returns-at-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2023\/07\/04\/daria-saville-many-happy-returns-at-wimbledon","title":{"rendered":"Daria Saville: Many happy returns at Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis Australia<\/em><\/p>\n

It only takes the briefest glance at Daria Saville\u2019s social media to appreciate that she loves to stay in motion.<\/p>\n

Featuring everything from fashion to training tips and travel \u2013 but most of all her beloved dachshund, Tofu \u2013 it shows an outgoing 29-year-old who is constantly on the move.<\/p>\n

So when Saville suffered a devastating knee injury while competing at Tokyo last September, the then-world No.55 Australian was immediately planning her next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI phoned (my husband and fellow professional player) Luke and told him I knew straight away what I had done,\u201d Saville said of the injury, which was quickly confirmed as an ACL tear requiring surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI messaged my surgeon that day, I sent him the footage and I was focusing on my rehab straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was with that same relentless energy that Saville also tackled her spare time off tour \u2013 her positivity all the more remarkable for the fact she\u2019d also endured a major knee injury nine years earlier and battled an Achilles problem that kept her off tour for much of 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had perspective. I\u2019m not someone who doesn\u2019t think there are other things in life other than hitting tennis balls,\u201d said the Melburnian, who experienced a more conventional working life as she accepted an administrative role with Tennis Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to do something different and have different responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saville was also working hard to return to the court. \u201cMy team around me have been very supportive, I am\u00a0very grateful to Tennis Australia \u2013 there was a process from day one (and) I never felt lost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my physio, strength and conditioning coaches \u2026 they were trying to motivate me and saying it\u2019s not going to take long, and once you\u00a0do the first part of the rehab it\u2019s going to be more entertaining and you are going to be able to do a lot more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably what kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The approach was quickly validated in Saville\u2019s return to the tour, when she claimed a three-set win over No.11 seed Madison Brengle in the first round of Birmingham qualifying.<\/p>\n

And as she prepares to face Great Britain\u2019s Katie Boulter in her seventh main-draw campaign at Wimbledon, Saville is simply delighted to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the pressure is on her, I\u2019ve nothing to lose, this is my second tournament back,\u201d said Saville, who defeated Boulter in the only other match they contested in Adelaide qualifying last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will just go out there and compete as hard as I can and enjoy the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boulter\u2019s Australian connection as the girlfriend of Alex de Minaur provides a fascinating twist in the\u00a0 first-round encounter, with Saville laughingly relating that \u201cLuke and Alex are good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

> READ: De Minaur leading by example at Wimbledon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But facing a Brit only adds to her trademark enthusiasm, with the likelihood that their match will be contested on a show court.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s like another opportunity to just play,\u201d Saville said. \u201cI\u2019ve never played on any of the stadiums. Probably because of Katie it will be a nice court. I\u2019m just looking forward to restarting my career again.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with her ever-present momentum, Saville is also thinking in the longer term, with her successful returns from previous injuries adding to her self-belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I did rehab, I did it before and I got to a good level pretty quickly,\u201d she said, when asked of the possibilities of occupying the game\u2019s upper echelons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still want to see how high I can get because I don\u2019t feel I have peaked, I don\u2019t feel I have hit my goals yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

> READ: Saville among five Australians in action on day two<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Book online, play today:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Visit\u00a0play.tennis.com.au<\/a>\u00a0to get out on court and have some fun!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It only takes the briefest glance at Daria Saville\u2019s social media to appreciate that she loves to stay in motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6366,"featured_media":31742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}