Australian Open: Writing her own Destanee - Aiava takes aim at Hewitt and online trolls

One of the more fascinating stories of the Australian Open could happen before the tournament even begins.

Destanee Aiava is one win away from securing a berth in the main draw of the Australian Open Picture: David Caird

Destanee Aiava was inspired to play tennis as a young lass while watching Serena Williams on TV. She clubs the ball and speaks her mind in similar fashion.

Few players have as much raw potential as this young Melburnian. And perhaps only Williams could be so quickly subjected to the vitriol of social media by body-shaming trolls.

The 24-year-old Aiava faces a pressure-packed but winnable Australian Open final qualifying match against 23rd-seeded German Eva Lys on Thursday.

Off-court, she’s been copping it for her choices of body-hugging retro outfits. One nasty piece of work on X wrote: “Omg why would she wear a dress that doesn’t suit her at all? She made a mess of the outfit with her unproportionate body, her bulges covering the dress design.” Aiava wrote back: “Omg thank you so much. I love how your bio says ‘personal insult and swearing reply = block’ and then you go and comment a personal insult.”

Another offered: “Not to hate or body shame anyone but Destanee Aiava needs to lose some weight to get more quick on her feet imo.” Aiava responded, “Shut the f*** up. ‘Not to hate’ or ‘body shame’ and then you went and hated and body shamed”. The user apologised and Aiava wrote: “thank u for ur apology”.

Asked after defeating Hungary’s Panna Advardy 6-4 6-1 on Wednesday if she was rattled by the negativity, Aiava said: “I was. It’s not nice to see those comments. I don’t really look for them. Sometimes I look my name up just to find photos of my matches and then I see the bad stuff. I’ve been told to bite my tongue but I don’t really like to.”

Destanee Aiava, second right, with Australia’s United Cup team Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Aiava had already painted her time with Australia’s United Cup team, led by Lleyton Hewitt and including Alex de Minaur, in a poor light, describing the culture as hostile, unwelcoming and weird. Aiava was in the squad but didn’t play a match.

“Regarding our team, yeah, it’s not felt so welcoming,” she said in a YouTube video. “It’s not team-based at all. We pretty much just do whatever we want by ourselves and then when everyone has to play, that’s when we all come together as a ‘team’ … Would I recommend other people to play it? If you’re the No.1 person on your team, go for it. If not, run for your life.”

Asked at Melbourne Park to elaborate, Aiava said: “It was a challenging week but I don’t think I’d change the way it went. It taught me a lot. It’s done me wonders for this week, even though I didn’t get a match to prepare. I just learned what I could. I knew I wasn’t going to get a match (at the United Cup) but then on a day I was told, ‘Be ready to play’. That’s what my expectation rose to. But stuff happens, it’s a team event and I know they did the best they could. It was all a learning curve.”

She added: “I made that vlog because I enjoy posting my life and just being myself. I didn’t really mean anything malicious by it. It’s just the way I am. What you see is what you get with me. I didn’t really want it to become something negative but for some reason it got picked up by the news. It gave me some new subscribers, I guess.”

The final round of quallies is some of the most fantastically nerve-racking tennis you’ll ever see. Aiava is the world No.195 and needs all the cash and points she can get. They’re right there for the taking for a young woman who admits she has doubted, on occasions, whether life itself is worth the effort. If she wins on Thursday, one of the best Australian Open stories is happening before the tournament even begins.

“Everyone’s on a different journey,” she said. “I think mine is slowly getting back on track.”