Tennis: Australian Daria Saville falls in Guadalajara Open quarter-final to 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens

Daria Saville’s impressive Guadalajara Open run ended in a tight quarter-final defeat to American Sloane Stephens

Daria Saville lost her Guadalajara Open quarter-final to American sixth seed Sloane Stephens. Picture: Cesar Gomez

Daria Saville won’t leave Mexico with a second career singles title but will have renewed confidence she can again challenge the world’s best.

The world No.610 gave up a one-set lead in losing her Guadalajara Open quarter-final 4-6 6-3 6-2 to 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens on Saturday.

Saville became increasingly error prone towards the end of the contest and twice sought treatment for a left thigh problem in the final set before exiting the WTA 250 tournament.

She will regret not converting any of her six break points across the second and fourth games in the decider, with Stephens rallying from 0-40 and 15-40 holes on those occasions.

The American added salt to Saville’s wound when she broke the Australian in between those games and never gave it back.

Daria Saville lost her Guadalajara Open quarter-final to Sloane Stephens. Picture: Mark Stewart

A loose Saville service game at 2-4 sealed her fate, as she finished with 46 unforced errors compared to 14 winners in a match that lasted one minute short of 2 ½ hours.

She was playing her first WTA Tour quarter-final in almost three years after a torrid battle with an Achilles injury that required surgery early in 2021.

The former world No.20 will surge more than 200 spots in next week’s rankings but still has a tough grind ahead of her to rejoin the elite.

Stephens, who faces Russian Anna Kalinskaya in the semi-finals, was happy to see Saville back competing in a big match on the main tour.

“Daria and I have been playing since we were juniors,” Stephens said.

“Obviously, she’s been through a lot with injuries and stuff, so it’s nice to have her back and I’m really just pleased to be playing really competitive tennis and happy to share the court with her.”

Aussie comeback queen keeps Mexican roll going

By Marc McGowan

Australia’s Daria Saville is guaranteed to rise more than 200 places in the rankings thanks to making her first WTA Tour quarter-final in almost three years in Mexico on Friday.

The 27-year-old, once ranked inside the world’s top 20, has endured a torrid time with an Achilles injury that cut her down in her prime and resulted in surgery after last year’s Australian Open.

That decision, which Saville called a “last option”, came after battling the problem for almost five years – but her persistence is starting to be rewarded.

Two days after outlasting defending US Open champion and top seed Emma Raducanu in a 3 ½-hour epic that ended with the Brit’s retirement, Saville blitzed American qualifier Caroline Dolehide 6-1 6-3 in 67 minutes.

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Saville (nee Gavrilova), who married Australian doubles specialist Luke Saville before Christmas, won 22 of 27 return points on Dolehide’s second serve in a devastating performance.

Daria Saville is into first WTA Tour quarter-final since mid-2019. Picture: Mark Stewart

She started the week ranked a lowly No.610 but has already climbed to 409 in the live WTA rankings ahead of a last-eight showdown with another past US Open winner, 2017 champion Sloane Stephens.

Sixth-seeded Stephens ousted Frenchwoman Chloe Paquet 7-5 6-4 to book her quarter-final berth.

Paquet coincidentally eliminated Saville from her last WTA quarter-final at the WTA 250 event at Strasbourg, France, in May 2019.

Stephens won her only clash with Saville 6-4 6-3 on Charleston’s clay almost six years ago.

Saville told News Corp in December that her goal was to return to the top 50 but expected it would take some time to regain her best form.

But she said after her defeat of Raducanu that it was “the first match in a long time when I felt like I was being myself”.

“I was being feisty Dasha,” Saville said. “I just want to keep on working and keep on going here.”

Aussie World No.610 does the unthinkable

By Jasper Bruce

Aussie World No. 610 Daria Saville (nee Gavrilova) has stunned last year’s US Open champion, Emma Raducanu, in an epic at the Guadalajara Open 7-5, 6-7, 3-4.

A hip injury forced Raducanu, the tournament’s top seed, to retire in the third set of her first match since the Australian Open.

Despite the early finish, the match was still the longest women’s hitout of the year to date, lasting a whopping three hours and 36 minutes.

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19-year-old Raducanu claimed the first set 7-5 after 80 minutes and had the chance to serve for the match in the second.

But the Aussie wasn’t going down without a fight. Saville clawed back in the second set to force a tie-breaker, which she won.

Saville is through to the round of 16. Picture: Cesar Gomez/Jam Media/Getty Images

The epic contest wore both women down, with Raducanu calling a medical time-out in the decisive third set and leaving the court for medical attention.

She returned with tape on her leg and fought on for two more games, but the injury proved too much to handle. Raducanu retired and handed Saville an unlikely victory.

“This is probably the first match in a long time when I felt like I was being myself,” Saville said afterwards.

“I was being feisty Dasha. I just want to keep on working and keep on going here.”

Raducanu’s shock early exit comes after she bowed out of the Australian Open, her first grand slam since winning the US Open, in the second round.

Saville will next face American Caroline Dolehide in the round of 16. The pair has met once before on the WTA Tour, in the first round at Wimbledon in 2018.

On that occasion, the Aussie triumphed in straight sets.

Originally published as Tennis: Australian Daria Saville falls in Guadalajara Open quarter-final to 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens