Daria Gavrilova finished a season in the Top 40 for the third time in a row. The world’s No. 25 won her first WTA Tour tournament in August and plans to take the next step towards the top ten next year – even if she is reluctant to watch her own matches on television.
“It’s funny to see myself on the news,”Gavrilova told Sydney Morning Herald,”I’m running around like a madman. Sometimes I have to laugh at myself during the reruns of my TV matches.”
Gavrilova’s childhood dream was to become an actress. Her theatricality, which she occasionally plays between points on the tennis court, indicates that she has the talent for it. I can’t remember lyrics, it would be hard for me to remember them,”Gavrilova said with a wink.
But instead of rehearsing texts, the Australian writes her own stories on the court. In the summer she beat Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Connecticut and won her first tournament on a big stage of the WTA-Tour.
She seems to be particularly motivated:”I always try to interact with the audience. Sometimes I don’t have the motivation in training, and I say to myself,”No one’s watching, why should I do my best now?”
Gavrilova, who is also a professional tennis player with fellow countryman Luke Saville, also admits that her emotions sometimes hurt her in a match. She concentrated “too much on the negative”instead of doing important homework or implementing a planned tactic. In most cases, however, their emotionality is stimulating:”If I feel good and have fun on the court, it helps my tennis.”
For the coming months, Gavrilova has set himself a concrete goal:”I want to be in the top 10. And she has a plan for the time after her career: opening her own café “Then I’m always with people, making them a cup of coffee in the morning and saying:’ Hey, have a nice day'”.