Daria’s star is rising

REBORN tennis star Daria Saville has matched her best French Open performance to move within a win of a longawaited return to the top 100.

The tenacious baseliner breezed past No.32 seed and dual Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4 6-2 in a 75minute beat down to be the last Australian standing out of the 11 singles entrants at the clay-court grand slam.

That impressive victory came on the same day Ajla Tomljanovic and qualifier

Jason Kubler lost in the second round.

Saville climbed to No.103 in the live rankings and will move inside the top 100 for the first time since August 2019 if she beats 59th-ranked Italian Martina Trevisan.

Her ranking was on the wrong side of 600 only three months ago before a blistering run during the American hard-court swing.

Saville hit almost as many winners as Kvitova (18-26) but committed only seven unforced errors compared to the Czech champion’s 30 as she beat her for the fourth time in six clashes.

The former top-20 star has re-emerged this season since returning from last-resort surgery following a five-year battle with an achilles issue that won’t ever fully go away.

“I did know I was the last Aussie standing. I don’t know why,” Saville said. “I mean, that’s why I (sometimes) lose matches, because I think of this stuff. But I did this time, and that’s not a good thing.

“Sometimes, I’m in another world, but then as long as I catch myself, I think, ‘OK, come back, you’re here, play the ball’. The good thing was I was able to concentrate again and didn’t think about it.”

Tomljanovic’s 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 loss to Russian Varvara Gracheva followed her massive upset of fifth seed Anett Kontaveit and came as a great disappointment as she chased another deep grand slam run.

She was two points from victory when Gracheva slipped to 30-all on serve in the 10th game of the final set but that was as close as she got.

“This loss overshadows the good win for me,” she said.