When Daria Saville returned to grand slam tennis at Wimbledon last year after her second knee reconstruction, the Australian was hoping for a change in fortune but instead found herself in the midst of a puzzle, watched by a princess and driven nuts by fans farting.
Pitted against Katie Boulter, the partner of Australian star Alex de Minaur, Saville was leading her rival in the first set tiebreaker when the show court they were playing on was invaded by a man who shrouded it in a cloud of orange bits from a jigsaw puzzle.
It was the second protest for the day by a group called Just Stop Oil and while Boulter, who rallied to win 7-6 (4) 6-2, later said she believed “we both handled it really well” and it was a “really unfortunate situation for everyone”, it was indisputably tougher for Saville.
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The Billie Jean King Cup stalwart, who lost the final five points of the tiebreaker after the disruption and struggled to regain her rhythm in the second set, has an attention deficit disorder and any break in routine can prove especially disruptive for her.
Saville, who helped the ground staff clean the court by getting down on to her knees in order to pick the finer pieces of the puzzle from the court, later lamented the incident “really rattled me”.
“I’ve always struggled with concentration, so it is probably the toughest circumstances I have had to deal with,” she said.
“It was, ‘Oh my god, why on my court?’. I am the worst at being able to focus.”
Nor was the environmental protest and the quality of play from Boulter the only challenge Saville had to deal with.
After Catherine, the Princess of Wales, watched the initial stages of the match before a rain delay, an already unusual outing descended into farce as the hard-working Melburnian tried to regain her focus, only to be driven to distraction again by some unruly fans.
“There were four guys at the back making farting noises that were really distracting. Farting noises, quietly going ‘pftt’” she said.
“It really annoyed me and I have ADHD, so … it drove me nuts.”
KEEPING ORDER ON THE TOUR WHILE MANAGING A DISORDER
Although the very best are richly renumerated, life as a tennis professional is scarcely an easy occupation as players bounce between tournaments, hotels, countries and continents.
For Saville, who won a WTA Tour title in Connecticut in 2017 and peaked at a ranking of 20 that year, dealing with ADHD while managing a career travelling the globe is an additional challenge, as she told foxsports.com.au in an extended interview late last year.
The Moscow-raised star, who lived with esteemed footy journalist Mike Sheahan and his daughter Kate, the current Richmond AFLW boss, when she moved to Australia as a teenager, said the court usually proves a safe haven for her.
“I think on the court, I can focus. I can get into a flow state. But I also get very easily distracted. I see everything and everyone,” she said.
“I used to tell myself, ‘Dasha, keep your eyes on the court. Focus’. But now it is more like, ‘Okay. I can get distracted. I can have my thoughts and that is just normal’. As long as I can refocus, that is how I deal with just being on the tennis court.
“But it has probably affected my life more, just forgetting everything. Before my first round match (at the US Open last August), I literally left my tennis bag in the hotel.
“I walked out to get my transport and luckily my coach said, ‘Dasha, where is your tennis bag?’. It was just by chance and I thought, ‘Oh my God’. I had brought a change of clothes, but not my tennis bag or my racquets.
“There are just little things like that which always happen to me. But my team is aware of it, so they are on me about everything.”
Australia’s top-ranked woman, who has a close friend on tour who has also been diagnosed with ADHD and is happy to discuss the subject to raise awareness, said she relies on the support of her team to ensure she is able to navigate the challenges of travelling.
“It is about them reminding me of things or trying to make my life stress free. It can be booking courts, they’ll do that, or putting racquets in to be be restrung, they’re going to do that,” she said.
“Especially at grand slams, it is hectic and I get distracted very easily. I will see someone and want to have a chat, or I will completely forget where I am going. At smaller events, it is easier to manage myself. But (grand slams are tiring), but I think that’s for everyone. It is not just me.
“I have to be mindful on the court, or off the court, to manage my time properly. It might be how much time I spend in the gym, for example, even if it is not that physical. I still have to engage and that is hard for me.
“For me to relax, I have to completely shut off. I need to sit back and relax and not feel like I have to be somewhere at a certain time.”
A MOST RESILIENT CAREER
That Saville will play in her eighth Wimbledon next week is a testament to her resilience given the challenges she has overcome during her career.
She is yet to win a grand slam match since resuming from her latest setback just over 12 months ago but has done well to get her ranking, which is currently 80, back inside the top 100 once again, with runs to the semi-finals in Hobart and last eight in San Diego this year.
Having twice reached the last 16 at the Australian Open, as well as 3rd Rd appearances at the other three majors, Saville was on the rise again in 2022 when her knee buckled during a match against four-time major winner Naomi Osaka in Japan.
Even before the scans came through, the right-hander was in touch with Melbourne specialist David Young to arrange surgery when she returned home, having already discussed the situation with her husband Luke, a former boys singles champion at Wimbledon.
“I called Luke and because I didn’t really cry, he was like, ‘Are you joking? Why are you laughing?’. I said, ‘Well, I’m not really laughing. It’s just shit.’” she said.
“This is almost my fourth comeback. (I’ve done) two knees and an Achilles, along with plantar fasciitis. We tried to overcome that problem through rehab, but that did not really work out, so then I had surgery.
“For me, staying healthy now is the priority and making the right decisions for the rest of my career is going to be the key. I think what I have already achieved is pretty cool, being a top 20 player, but I think I still have a few more years ahead of me.”
Saville, who worked for Tennis Victoria in a social media role while undergoing rehabilitation on her knee injury, has always packed a big punch for her height – she stands 1.66m – and has wins over grand slam champions Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber, the latter when the German was ranked No.1.
Her most recent final appearance came in Canada shortly before her knee injury two years ago but she has shown signs of recapturing her best form since the loss to Boulter at Wimbledon last year.
This includes a strong effort against five-time major champion Iga Swiatek at the US Open last year, while she also pushed subsequent finalist Jasmine Paolini at Roland Garros last month.
A major goal when returning to the tour last year was to qualify for the Australian Olympic Team, with Saville’s spot confirmed this week.
“I truly believe I can be a top 20 player again. It may be delusional, it may be not, but I think I can have a chance at winning a grand slam,” she said.
“There are always draws opening up. I’ll go through draws and think, ‘Oh my God. I’ve beaten this player before.‘ And I have got a lot of top 10 wins already.”
MANAGING MARRIED LIFE AS A TENNIS PLAYER WHEN YOUR PARTNER IS ALSO A PRO
There is another element to Saville’s career that is a challenge, for her husband Luke is in the midst of relaunching his singles career after a successful stint focusing primarily on doubles, which led to his selection in Australia’s Davis Cup team.
Saville said that grand slam tournaments like Wimbledon are precious for tennis-playing couples as it enables them to spend time together before they head off chasing ranking points and trophies at events in different countries or continents.
“We’ve done long distance forever, even before I moved to Australia,” she said.
“In 2021, right before we got married, we didn’t see each other for eight months or something because I was injured and he was playing and he was not going to come back home to do two months of quarantine.
“There was nothing really happening. He was playing tennis and I was living in a bubble (during the pandemic), which was boring, and I was not seeing anyone at all, just going to the gym because we were authorised to use the gym. But we were able to get through that.
“Now, because I think we are both busy – he is playing tennis and I am playing tennis and we both have our goals – we just try to find the positives despite being apart. And the positive is that I am doing what I love and he is doing what he loves. And we make sacrifices.
“We try to spend as much time together as possible … a lot of time as a couple. And we just try to come up with solutions where we can see each other when we are travelling and try to do something fun off the court when we have the time.”