Daria Saville polls Tik Tok fans on US Open outfits, talks facing Iga Swiatek

FLASHBACK: Saville vlogged her way through Tokyo last fall before injuring her ACL.

NEW YORK—Daria Saville took to Tik Tok to settle an important question before her US Open return: what to wear?

After modeling a pair of Lululemon styles, she ultimately chose the crop-top separates despite vocal enthusiasm from her nearly-one million followers for the dress.

“Even the girls in the locker room were like, ‘You should have worn the dress,’” she said with a laugh, “and I was like ‘Damn…’”

Luckily for fans, Saville will have another chance to debut the lewk after flying through her first round against junior Wimbledon champion Clervie Ngounoue with the loss of just two games.

Herself a former junior standout, having won the US Open girl’s title back in 2010, Saville had encouraging words for the American teenager after the match.

“We a few years ago at Mouratoglou when she was only 14,” recalled the Aussie, who missed most of the past 12 months after injuring her ACL. “She’s still a little bit raw and doesn’t have enough experience, even just practicing with Grand Slam, Top 100 players. I think it will take her a couple of months of being on tour before she can break through or be more consistent and put together a few wins.”

Saville showed no rust in only her second major appearance in 2023, returning to action during the grass-court season to end a nine-month lay-off. Reaching the semifinals on summer clay in Hamburg, the former world No. 20 was ruthless on Monday, converting five of six break point chances to a book a second round against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

“The biggest goal is not to get double-bageled!” she joked. “When I was coming back from injuries, the goal was to get to play on all the bigger courts at every Slam. Hopefully that will be ticked off and I can still make her life very uncomfortable. I will play free and see what happens.

“I think we can definitely get in her head,” she added more seriously. “She’s still a human.

“I need to play with myself. Playing against anyone ranked that high, the tendency for most players is to try and play their best tennis. Sometimes that creates extra pressure and you miss more. I’ll try to enjoy the atmosphere, but I might not enjoy if I’m losing!”

At 29, Saville seeks to ease pressure by playing for something bigger than herself.

“There’s such a big ACL community that I have people coming up to me saying, ‘Oh my god. I’ve done my ACL not long ago and I followed your progress.’ That way, I feel like all I have to do is compete, chase a million balls, and that’ll hopefully inspire others.”

In a dress or separates, watch out for Saville against Swiatek on Wednesday.