I've been wanting to create a thread for this lil future GOAT for quite some time now, so here it is!
13 yo Daria (born March 22, 2002) from Moscow is the most promising 2002 girl from Russia by a mile, and she's already better than the vast majority of 2001 born Russian girls (except Potapova, Koval and *maybe* Pachkaleva).
She's won 2 G14s: TE Lidingo in February (she was the top seed there, and she beat 6th seed Oleksandra Oliynykva 4 & 1 in the final) and LBS Muller Junior Cup in August (she was the top seed as well there, beat 6th seed Ekaterina Repina 2 & 1 in the final), and 2 G16s: Nike Junior International London (top seeded again, she beat 4th seed Esther Adeshina 4 & 3 in the final) and Herodotou Tennis Academy (she was the 3rd seed, and she beat unseeded but looming Daria Snigur in the final, 2 & 2).
She's also made 3 more finals: at G14 TIM Essonne in March (she was the 5th seed there, fell to 2nd seed Taisya Pachkaleva in the final, 2-6 6-4 1-6 ), at G16 Beloura Junior Open last month (she was the 4th seed, lost to local 5th seed Francisca Jorge in the final, 4-6 6-7(5) ), and at G16 Torneo Internacional De Tenis Sub 16 XIII Memorial Nacho Juncosa this week (she was the top seed, fell to 2nd seed Christina Berchtold 0-6 6-7(5) in the final today ); and you can add to that 4 more SF appearances (at G16 Famagousta Tennis Club, at G16 Pont Des Générations, at G14 Open des jeunes Stade Francais - BNP Paribas Cup, and at G14 Audi GW lus Zentrum Munchen Junior Open.
Actually, out of the 14 tournaments she's played this year, she only failed to reach the SFs (or further...) twice: at G14 Les Petits As, where she actually had to face Hurricane Tyra Black in R1 and lost 6-2 3-6 1-6, and at G14 Kungens Kanna & Drottningens, where she beat Helene Pellicano in straights in R2, but got stopped by 2nd seed Anna Laguza in R3, 2-6 6-3 4-6...
These were her 1st and 3rd tournaments this year, those 2 losses weren't even remotely bad, and after that she's made the SFs/final/won the thing whenever she's entered a tournament - that's very impressive, and even more when you see that she's playing the strongest tournaments... Her W/L record so far this year is 49-10.
Last week, she played the Tennis Europe Junior Masters in U16 cat.. This tournament gathers the 8 best players of the year at the Tennis Europe race, there are 2 categories (U14 and U16) because the Tennis Europe rankings have separate U14 and U16 rankings.
Dasha could have also been selected for the U14 Masters, but you have to choose 1 category and she played in U16. She was the youngest girl of the 8, only 2002 born girl.
She won her first match over (4)Maria Natalia Lyven, 6-0 7-5, lost her 2nd match against (2)Marina Bassols, 4 & 4 in SF. But she beat the other girl who lost in SF, top seed and fellow Russian Daria Lukyanova, 6-3 1-6 7-5, so she snatched the bronze medal!
Bassols, who was the only 1999 born girl there, won the gold in the end.
Now, I hope she plays the Junior Kremlin Cup in 2 weeks (given it's her home tournament, I can't see her missing this! ), and hopefully she can afford to fly to the US for the big tournies held there in Nov/Dec. Davayyy Dasha!!
13 yo Daria (born March 22, 2002) from Moscow is the most promising 2002 girl from Russia by a mile, and she's already better than the vast majority of 2001 born Russian girls (except Potapova, Koval and *maybe* Pachkaleva).
She's won 2 G14s: TE Lidingo in February (she was the top seed there, and she beat 6th seed Oleksandra Oliynykva 4 & 1 in the final) and LBS Muller Junior Cup in August (she was the top seed as well there, beat 6th seed Ekaterina Repina 2 & 1 in the final), and 2 G16s: Nike Junior International London (top seeded again, she beat 4th seed Esther Adeshina 4 & 3 in the final) and Herodotou Tennis Academy (she was the 3rd seed, and she beat unseeded but looming Daria Snigur in the final, 2 & 2).
She's also made 3 more finals: at G14 TIM Essonne in March (she was the 5th seed there, fell to 2nd seed Taisya Pachkaleva in the final, 2-6 6-4 1-6 ), at G16 Beloura Junior Open last month (she was the 4th seed, lost to local 5th seed Francisca Jorge in the final, 4-6 6-7(5) ), and at G16 Torneo Internacional De Tenis Sub 16 XIII Memorial Nacho Juncosa this week (she was the top seed, fell to 2nd seed Christina Berchtold 0-6 6-7(5) in the final today ); and you can add to that 4 more SF appearances (at G16 Famagousta Tennis Club, at G16 Pont Des Générations, at G14 Open des jeunes Stade Francais - BNP Paribas Cup, and at G14 Audi GW lus Zentrum Munchen Junior Open.
Actually, out of the 14 tournaments she's played this year, she only failed to reach the SFs (or further...) twice: at G14 Les Petits As, where she actually had to face Hurricane Tyra Black in R1 and lost 6-2 3-6 1-6, and at G14 Kungens Kanna & Drottningens, where she beat Helene Pellicano in straights in R2, but got stopped by 2nd seed Anna Laguza in R3, 2-6 6-3 4-6...
These were her 1st and 3rd tournaments this year, those 2 losses weren't even remotely bad, and after that she's made the SFs/final/won the thing whenever she's entered a tournament - that's very impressive, and even more when you see that she's playing the strongest tournaments... Her W/L record so far this year is 49-10.
Last week, she played the Tennis Europe Junior Masters in U16 cat.. This tournament gathers the 8 best players of the year at the Tennis Europe race, there are 2 categories (U14 and U16) because the Tennis Europe rankings have separate U14 and U16 rankings.
Dasha could have also been selected for the U14 Masters, but you have to choose 1 category and she played in U16. She was the youngest girl of the 8, only 2002 born girl.
She won her first match over (4)Maria Natalia Lyven, 6-0 7-5, lost her 2nd match against (2)Marina Bassols, 4 & 4 in SF. But she beat the other girl who lost in SF, top seed and fellow Russian Daria Lukyanova, 6-3 1-6 7-5, so she snatched the bronze medal!
Bassols, who was the only 1999 born girl there, won the gold in the end.
Now, I hope she plays the Junior Kremlin Cup in 2 weeks (given it's her home tournament, I can't see her missing this! ), and hopefully she can afford to fly to the US for the big tournies held there in Nov/Dec. Davayyy Dasha!!