Daria Saville is one win away from a sixth WTA final after stunning Chinese third-seed Zhu Lin in the quarter-finals of the Hobart International.
The popular Australian wildcard shook off a frustrating start to prevail 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday and book a date with the top seed, Elise Mertens, in the semi-finals.
Saville, a former top-20 player now ranked 195 in the world, has been playing some of her finest tennis as she continues her comeback from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament which she suffered in September 2022, sidelining her for nine months.
Saville proved her straight-sets win over the women’s 2020 Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin, in the round of 16 was not a fluke and has justified being granted the final discretionary wildcard for the Australian Open. “It feels so good,” an elated Saville said.
“It means the world being in the semi-finals at a home tournament, playing in front of a home crowd. I’m so happy. She was the better player in the first set for sure but I found my game and didn’t give up. I tried to turn it around by being more aggressive and it paid off.”
Below her best in the first set, Saville lifted her levels in the second, breaking with some wonderful defence, then breaking again when Zhu double-faulted twice.
Saville screamed “come on” as she sealed the pivotal third-set break in the ninth game via Zhu’s netted backhand before advancing when her opponent pulled a forehand wide.
Saville and Mertens – back-to-back Hobart champion in 2017 and 2018 – have met six times, with the Belgian holding a 4-2 advantage.
Mertens has yet to drop a set at the Domain Tennis Centre this week and outclassed the Dutch veteran Arantxa Rus 7-5 6-0.
Mertens battled at times with the wind in the opening set before rediscovering her best tennis to concede just seven points in the second-set rout.
“I was more happy with how I played [compared to her round-two win over Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova], especially the second set,” said Mertens. “She was serving very well … I had to adjust a little bit in the first set.”
Second-seeded American Emma Navarro defeated Bulgarian lucky loser Viktoriya Tomova 4-6 6-3 6-2.