Daria Saville's epic moment after pre-tournament wardrobe mishap
Daria Saville's form on grass has gone from strength to strength despite a pre-tournament mishap that threatened to derail her German Open campaign.
The Aussie tennis star booked her place in the last 16 of the tournament in Berlin, courtesy of a come-from-behind victory over Switzerland's Jil Teichmann.
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Saville beat the Swiss star 6-7(2-7) 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 42 minutes to set up a showdown against French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean or second seed Maria Sakkari for a place in the quarter-finals.
'Dasha' made it into the Berlin main draw with a 6-0 7-6 (9-7) win over former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki.
However, the Aussie revealed before the tournament kicked off that her plans had been thrown into disarray after losing her shoes on the autobahn.
“Was travelling to Berlin by car and my only grass court shoes flew on autobahn including my tennis bag and some other stuff lol. I still have rackets tho,” Saville wrote on social media.
It’s funny but also not funny cause I don’t have grass court shoes for when I play on Saturday 🥲 pray for me pic.twitter.com/yrYUpzSI2M
— Daria Saville (@Daria_gav) June 8, 2022
Saville said she was lucky to be able to borrow a pair of old shoes from Aussie compatriot Storm Sanders prior to her victory over Lisicki - which was the 28-year-old's first win on grass since 2019.
After seeing Saville progress past Teichmann in her superb comeback win on Monday, Sanders took to social media to hail the "good luck shoes" that she'd bestowed upon her fellow Aussie.
Good luck shoes 👟 🍀 @Daria_gav https://t.co/az8v9VKZu2
— Storm Sanders (@stormsanders94) June 13, 2022
Karolina Pliskova, Bianca Andreescu win in three sets
In other matches, Karolina Pliskova reached the second round of the German Open thanks to a comeback win over Kaia Kanepi.
The former World No.1 stormed home to beat the Estonian 6-7(5) 6-0 6-0 win in one hour and 43 minutes.
Kanepi had seven break points on the Czech’s serve in the opening set but wasn’t able to convert any of those.
The Estonian prevailed in the first set tiebreak but unravelled after that, with Pliskova breaking serve six times to seal a comfortable win.
Fourth-seeded Pliskova will play Bianca Andreescu in the round of 16 after the Canadian came through a three-set tussle of her own.
Andreescu beat Pliskova’s Czech compatriot, Katerina Siniakova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a rollercoaster match that stretched more than two hours.
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