Daria Gavrilova, just twenty-one years of age, made the most of her time in the sunshine state by defeating the world’s number two ranked player Maria Sharapova in straight sets. It was an impressive and mesmerizing display of raw talent, focused aggression and high-risk play which, if maintained, will continue to pay dividends.
Despite her small stature, Gavrilova at 5 ft. 5 inches generates enormous pace with her ground strokes and covers the court exceedingly well. Minimal effort is required to expose Sharapova’s consistently flawed movement and Daria was quick to capitalize.
Undeniably, Gavrilova’s vacillating emotional state at times overwhelmed her and negatively impacted her shot selection, but with maturity comes balance and the capacity to advantageously employ one’s emotions. I was most impressed with her ability to regain her composure, win the first set tie-breaker and serve out the match leading 5-3 in the second.
She would progress to the fourth round at the Miami Open losing to the number fourteen seed, Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2. As a result of her strong performance at this tier 1 event, Daria Gavrilova has achieved a career-high WTA ranking of 97 in the world.
Gavrilova, an extremely accomplished junior player won both the Youth Olympic Games and US Open in 2010 and consequently, was ranked the number one junior in the world. Daria, of Russian descent, resides in Melbourne, Australia where she is coached by former WTA tour player, Nicole Pratt.
Gavrilova’s first tournament of 2015 was the Brisbane International where she qualified for main draw play. She defeated American Alison Riske in the first round but lost in the following round 6-3, 7-5 to world number nine, Angelique Kerber.
Daria received a wildcard for the following event in Sydney were she defeated the talented young Swiss player, Belinda Bencic before once again drawing and losing to Kerber in three sets the following round.
Gavrilova suffered a first round loss at the Australian Open but would win a $50,000 event in Burnie, Australia defeating the American and top seed Irina Falconi in the final. She would win her second $50,000 tournament the following week in Launceston, Tasmania.
Her comprehensive and emphatic victory over world number two Maria Sharapova would be her first over a top- ten player; it’s safe to say, it will not be her last.
