A downcast Daria Saville is considering her future in the sport after suffering her second straight first-round loss in a grand slam at the US Open.
Saville, 30 years old and battling on injured since her first round loss at Wimbledon, smashed her racquet into pieces after losing match point in her three-hour 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, (10-6) loss to Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara.
Things were looking up for the Australian after fighting back from a set down to be leading 2-0, 30-0 in the deciding set.
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But inconsistency on her ground shots let Shibahara get back on serve, and the Australian’s mental focus declined steadily in the marathon final set as her frustration grew.
As the match moved into a 10-point tie-breaker after Saville did well to hold for 6-5 after a 16-minute service game, she began losing her cool, growing more frustrated with herself as the match wore on.
It all came to a head at the conclusion of the match, when Saville double-faulted on match point, handing victory to the qualifier which led to the Aussie smashing her racquet five times into the court in disgust.
Battling a painful bout of plantar fasciitis in her foot, it was her second straight first-round loss at a grand slam after she blew a 6-2, 5-1 lead against Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Saville was non-committal on her future in the sport while discussing her difficulty with injury of late.
“Mentally, it was tough because I felt that at some point, I felt that I didn’t even deserve it, because I didn’t put in the work. It is just a cycle,” she said.
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“I have had it before when I was playing injured and it is just a horrible cycle. (I’m thinking), ‘Do I even want to do this anymore?’.
“I’m really negative right now. I don’t know how I will feel tomorrow and probably I won’t feel that way in a few days, but it is not fun playing injured.”
Saville, who has overcome two knee reconstructions and a serious Achilles heel issue to return to the top 100, was asked if she felt “totally fed up”: “At this point, yeah,” she responded.
Set to drop to No.97 in the world rankings, Saville must continue to fight it out on tour over the coming months if she wants direct qualification into the Australian Open by staying in the top 100.
She even admitted the only reason why she competed in the US is because of the $150,000 prize money on offer.
“That is the truth. Where else will I make money? I lose money anywhere else if I bring a coach,” she said.
“I will regroup, maybe. I really want to play the Asian swing but sometimes I maybe feel like I don’t even want to do this thing anymore.
“The tennis is there but on some big points, I missed some shots that I would not have missed if I had some matches under my belt. That is not the level anyway. It was not a good level from me.
“There were some glimpses of good level, but overall I was so frustrated that it was that long, because I have probably made it worse. That is the thing, you can’t make it too much worse unless it snaps, which is not too bad.”
Saville was not the only Australian woman to go down at Flushing Meadows, with wildcard Taylah Preston losing 6-2, 6-0 to 25th seed Anastasia Pavylchenkova in just over an hour.
