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Carla Suarez Navarro def Daria Gavrilova 0-6 6-3 6-2

Q. Did you want that a bit too much?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: I guess so. I played very well in the first set. I guess I was starting to overcook it a little bit in the second, got very emotional. Yeah, was just going crazy.

Q. Is that something you can learn from going forward?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Yeah. It wasn't great and I'm very disappointed with myself. I was being a little girl. Just, yeah, I'm very disappointed with myself.

Q. You play with a lot of energy all the time. Where do you think it got to be too much emotion today?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: I think, yeah, I got emotionally fried in the second set. Yeah, I was getting angry with myself, just showing way too much emotion.

Q. Why do you think that happened, particularly in the third set?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: I don't know. Yeah, like I said, probably 'cause I was emotionally fried from playing a lot. I've never played that deep in a Grand Slam, so maybe that's why.

Q. Do you think you were overawed by centre court and the big crowd?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: No. It's not acceptable. I don't know why I did that. I was terrible.

Q. You made it to the fourth round for the first time, lost to a top-10 player, but you seem pretty angry at yourself tonight.
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Yeah, I mean, I played good. But, yeah, like I said, the behavior, yeah, I just got to learn from it.

Q. The attention on you off the court has grown enormously. Your first press conference before the start of the tournament, there were two of us. Now you're on the front and back pages of newspapers, doing TV crosses. Has that been overwhelming?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: A little bit, yeah. Right now I don't mind it. I don't know what to do. It's all happening for the first time in my life, so I just go with it. I got people that help me with everything. They're guiding me.

Q. Have you learned much about yourself as a person over the past week?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Hmm. I think I handled myself very well in the first three matches. I was very happy about that and proud. But, like I said, I'm very disappointed about tonight.

Q. Having said all that, you must take a lot of confidence out of the way you played, some scalps you got here, putting yourself in a position to almost be in the quarterfinal?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Yeah, I was beating a top-10 player, I was winning 6-Love, I was up 1-Love in the second set. That gives me a lot of confidence.

Q. Would you have believed that coming into this fortnight you would have been in the fourth round, pushing a top-10 player on Rod Laver Arena?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Just before the tournament, I said if I played my best I could beat anyone. So I guess, yeah.

Q. Does this result change your expectations for the rest of the year ahead?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Not really. I am happy about my results. After all, I lost against a top-10 player. She was very tough. I think still the whole tournament was great. It gives me a lot of confidence.

Q. You're projected to rise to No. 32 in the world, a Grand Slam seeding sort of zone. Is that a priority between now and the French, pushing up there so you can be seeded at the slams?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: To be honest, the seeding, I don't care about it. I think the gap in women's tennis is not very big right now. You can see a few qualifiers are still in the tournament. A few girls that are my age are still in the tournament.

I think it doesn't really matter.

Q. Where does Fed Cup and the Olympics fit in for the rest of the year? There was some uncertainty about you playing in the first tie.
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Yeah, I was really looking forward playing in February. But unfortunately I'm not going to. We appealed, and I didn't win that appeal. Very disappointed. I was really looking forward.

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not going to play the first tie in Slovakia, but we'll see what happens in April.

Q. The first set you played, was that almost as well as you could play?
DARIA GAVRILOVA: Well, apparently I made like three unforced errors, so it was pretty good beating a top-10 player 6-Love, yeah.

- Daria Gavrilova can finally lift a championship trophy.

The unseeded Australian triumphed in the final of the Connecticut Open on Saturday, ousting No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in a gripping encounter, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Gavrilova clinches the first WTA singles title of her career in New Haven.

"It feels pretty special to win my first tournament here," Gavrilova exclaimed during the trophy presentation. "It means the world to me to hold this trophy." Gavrilova, currently ranked World No.26, is also projected to enter the Top 20 for the first time in her career on Monday.

The two players had met only once before, with Cibulkova taking a decisive 6-3, 6-2 win over Gavrilova in the second round of last year’s Wimbledon. But the Australian turned the tables on Cibulkova this time, claiming victory in a grueling two hours and 45 minutes.

Cibulkova, the World No.11, fought hard throughout the match, but was denied her first WTA title of the year.

"It was a fight for every single ball, and I gave 100 percent today, and she was just better," Cibulkova said on court after the match. "This was a tournament I could finally play my good tennis, and I'm happy about it."

The first set opened with breaks of serve in four of the first six games, as both players were struggling while serving into the bright sun on a lovely day in New Haven.


But after a quick hold for 5-4, Cibulkova hit a cluster of powerful forehands to give her three break points on the Gavrilova serve, which doubled as set points.

Once another strong forehand from the Slovakian forced Gavrilova to hit a rally forehand into the net, Cibulkova claimed the first set 6-4.

The tide started to turn for Gavrilova in the second set, which featured lengthy games and wearying rallies which would continue for the remainder of the match.

After fending off break points in each of her first two service games, Gavrilova took the initial lead of the set at 3-2, when she chased down a drop shot and hit a forehand winner on her third break point of a marathon game.

At this point, Gavrilova’s typically reliable forehand, which had not been effective earlier in the match -- only one forehand winner in the first set -- started to click.


She hit a winner off of that side to consolidate the break for a 4-2 lead, and then held on until she got three break points at 5-3, taking the last one, and a 6-3 set, with another forehand winner.

It was a huge reversal for Gavrilova, who had 20 winners in the second set, four times what she had in the first set.

Meanwhile, Cibulkova's characteristic footspeed seemed to have slightly diminished in effectiveness, and the momentum seemed firmly with Gavrilova going into a deciding set.

Nevertheless, Cibulkova continued to demonstrate her patented grit, getting the first break of the set at 3-3, and the match briefly swung back in the Slovakian's favor. But unforced errors off of her forehand allowed Gavrilova to break and tie up the match again at 4-4.


After Gavrilova held for 5-4, it was left to Cibulkova to prolong the match, but a blistering forehand return gave Gavrilova two consecutive match points.

Both were saved, but a backhand crosscourt winner by Gavrilova gave her a third chance, which was the charm when she hit another forehand winner to take the title.



Gavrilova will surely head to the US Open with great confidence after winning a Premier title for her first WTA singles championship. She is seeded No. 25 in New York, and will face off in the first round against American qualifier Allie Kiick on Tuesday.

Cibulkova, seeded 11th at the US Open, has to deal with a faster turnaround, as she is in the bottom half of the draw, and will therefore play her first-round match on Monday, against compatriot Jana Cepelova.