What a match we just watched as the ones to look back during the 2nd day of the 2024 Australian Open between Magdalena Frech from Poland & our own Daria Saville at John Cain Arena. It took three sets and three hours to see things out where Saville got away with a close opening set lead after the tiebreak before Frech rebound quickly with both the 2nd and 3rd set performances for the win. The final score was 6-7 – 5-7 tie, 6-3 & 7-5.
Ah Bugger for Saville following her opening round exit but she did play so hard nonetheless from start to finish. She fired off really well to give her opponent a tough time on many occasions in the hope of things going her way, but unfortunately, Saville lacks that long run bridge where Frech had the upper hand from there with the loss. It wasn’t an easy last couple of years when it comes to her knee injury as she’s taking one step at a time where Daria can be much more than just a challenger by winning games on-court. Speaking of Frech, she too never gave up all along despite having to lose the opening set v Saville. At the end of the day though, it’s all about the overall performance where the Pole not only was too good in the 2nd set but she kept her cool through the toughest of her opponent’s challenges during the deciding set of this match. She’s 26 right now whose best grand slam singles run was Round 3 back in 2022 at Wimbledon on the grass courts, so let’s hope she can keep that up against 16th seed Caroline Garcia from France or Japan’s Naomi Osaka for the 2nd Round on Wednesday.
