Daria Gavrilova has taken her final bow at the 2016 Australian Open.
The adopted Australian claimed the hearts and minds of a nation before reluctantly exiting the Open after a fourth round 0-6 6-3 6-2 defeat to battle-hardened Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night.
After the two-hour, three-minute struggle, Gavrilova admitted to reaching breaking point mentally.
All of the national attention, the adulation of the tennis public and tough Open run caught up with the Russian-born 21 year old.
Asked if she was overwhelmed by the focus, Gavrilova said: “A little bit, yeah”.
“Right now, I don’t mind it, but I don’t know what to do, it’s all happening for the first time in my life so I just go with it.”
Gavrilova unbelievably took the first set to love.
She then broke in the first game of the second set to hold a 2-0 lead against the 11th seed.
At this point, Gavrilova seemed invincible, with her fighting qualities shining through to return everything the powerful Suarez Navarro produced.
Gavrilova was hitting her spots, working in acute angles and feeding off her new home crowd.
“I was beating a top-10 player,” she said. “Just before the tournament I said, if I play my best, I could beat anyone.”
Suarez Navarro has been around the block too many times to simply roll over.
She reeled off three consecutive games to get the set back on serve and Gavrilova got the jitters.
Gavrilova became frustrated with her play and was constantly gesturing to her players box.
The more points Suarez Navarro won, the worse Gavrilova’s body language became.
Gavrilova was disappointed she could not keep it together amid the Suarez Navarro storm in that momentum-shifting second set.
“I played very well in the first set,” Gavrilova said. “I guess I was starting to overcook it a bit in the second and got very emotional and was just going crazy.
“I was getting angry with myself and just showing way too much emotion. I was emotionally fried from playing a lot and I’ve never played that deep in a grand slam, so maybe that’s why.”
Gavrilova got her emotions in check for the start of the third set.
She broke in the first game and held serve in the second game before Suarez Navarro reeled off six unanswered games to move through to the next round, where she will face Agnieszka Radwanska.
Suarez Navarro, who battled with a sore knee, simply never gave up, even when staring a set and 0-2 deficit in the second set.
“I start obviously not really good,” Suarez Navarro said.
“But, you know, you have to believe. I try. I fight. I was there. You have to be there for a comeback like this. That’s it. I just try. I just believe that I can do it. Until the last point, I fight.”
Those similar fighting qualities were a trademark of Gavrilova throughout the tournament.
It was what endeared her to the Australian public.
“I think I handled myself very well in the first three matches and I was very happy about that and proud, but, like I said, I’m very disappointed about tonight,” she said.
