Asked if she has a favourite Wimbledon memory, Daria Saville can only screw up her face comically and offer up the weary verdict: “Not from last year, that’s for sure.”
The day 12 months ago when an elderly environmental protester burst on to Court 18 to hurl a mixture of confetti on to the hallowed turf in the middle of her first-round match against top Briton Katie Boulter is one that makes a good dinner party story.
But the weird, rain-interrupted match, which had stretched over two days during which Saville had been blissfully unaware that Kate, Princess of Wales, was a courtside spectator for a while, ended in a familar tale of SW19 disappointment for the 30-year-old who’s had five opening-round exits in seven tries.
This year, she’s out to change her fortunes, starting with another difficult contest on Tuesday against American Peyton Stearns, who won her maiden WTA title in Rabat in May and nearly toppled Australian Open champ Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells.
“When I had the protesters on the court last year, that’s wasn’t good – but it is a good one to tell everyone. I could, like, add a bit of sauce on it and exaggerate it,” laughed Saville.
And that’s not even mentioning the boorish British lads at the back of the court who tormented her by “making very distracting farting noises” during the contest.
Saville, who ended up so distracted by the “most extraordinary” match she had ever played that she ended up helping clear up the litter off the court to take her mind off the drama, admitted to being “rattled” at the time, but has no complaints about her subsequent defeat when she looks back.
“In the end, Katie did beat me and it was the same for both of us. It did maybe affect me a little bit in terms of I think I was on a bit of a roll, but she played better than me on that day.”
Of her Wimbledon record, Saville shrugs: “I only made the third round once, I haven’t had the best results but a few years back, me and (husband) Luke played literally side by side, which was also challenging, but another good story! So I’ve got a few good stories from here.”
She’s never played Stearns before but practised with the Cincinatti kid this year.
“She’s young and been playing some good tennis and I actually watched when she almost beat Sabalenka. Then winning a WTA tournament definitely makes you feel like ‘okay, well I belong here’, so it’s going to be tough,” said Saville.
But after her steady improvement on the comeback trail this year after an injury-strewn spell, she’s offering no predictions about possibly beating her Wimbledon best of getting to the last-32 in 2018. “No ambitions, I’ve got none,” she smiles.
Source Agencies
