Bulgarian Dia Evtimova boosts Flagstaff Freighters’ Asia-Pacific Tennis League campaign

BULGARIA’S Dia Evtimova has come a long way to spearhead Flagstaff Freighters’ tilt in the Asia-Pacific Tennis League.

DIA EVTIMOVA has come a long way to spearhead Flagstaff Freighters’ tilt in the Asia-Pacific Tennis League.

She grew up in Haskovo, Bulgaria – the same hometown as men’s world No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov – where her dad introduced her to tennis at seven, after idolising Monica Seles.

In October, Evtimova was playing a WA tournament when Freighters coach Jim Chaousis contacted her.

It resulted in the former world No. 145 deciding to extend her stay in Australia to join the club for the teams tournament.

“I was not planning at all on playing any team matches but I thought it might be a good idea to spend two more weeks in Australia practising and having some matches,” Evtimova, 27, says.

“Jimmy was very helpful organising everything.”

She has played Federation Cup for Bulgaria and was once ranked in the top five among European juniors.

She was competing at the Australian Open qualifiers the last time she was here.

During that trip she met Viktorija Rajicic, her doubles partner at Flagstaff, in an Open doping room.

Foot injuries have plagued Evtimova this year, sidelining her for several months, and her ranking has dropped to 300.

But she has helped Flagstaff, which won the tournament last year and was runner-up in January, again reach the national finals.

“I hope I can help the team do what they did this year or better than that,” she says.

“In tennis you have to go match-by-match and it’s a totally different format.”