World No.25 Daria Gavrilova comes to Melbourne in good form, pressure free and relaxed ahead of Australian Open 2018.
The 23-year-old has reached the fourth round at her home Grand Slam the past two years and after her semifinal performance in Sydney, she arrives at Melbourne Park full of confidence.
She will close the night session at Rod Laver Arena on Monday night against qualifier Irina Falconi, but that was only confirmed on Sunday afternoon after the flippant Melbourne weather forced qualifying to stretch onto a fifth day.
Gavrilova was still in the dark about her opponent when she fronted the media on Sunday, but the unknown element didn’t bother her.
“It is strange for a slam. But, you know, every other tournament is this way. You never know until the very last minute who you're going to get. I'm used to it,” she said.
“You get a bit, like, stressed out once the draw is out and you know who you play. You're like, ‘Oh, okay, I have to watch some vision, do this and that’.
“Now I'm just like, okay, I don't know who I'm playing, so I'm not worrying about it.”
The local hope is not one to put too much pressure on herself, and despite a lack of wins at the back end of 2017, she believes she has progressed mentally as a player.
“I don't know. I'm fine. I don't even know what pressure is really. Okay, yeah, I'm nervous and excited, but I don't know what that word means really,” she said.
“I felt like last year I was not actually playing, like, great tennis. I just handled it well mentally because I was down, like, in the score so many times,
“I just kept my cool and just kept on going on about what I had to do on the court.”
Despite an impressive showing in Sydney, Gavrilova is just taking every tournament in her stride and knows last week means nothing when she steps out onto court at a Grand Slam tournament.
“I've had three matches in Sydney. Played pretty good. I feel like I've been improving every match,” she said.
“But, you know, you just compete with what you have on a day, and it doesn't matter what happened the week before.”
Gavrilova loves playing in front of adoring fans at Rod Laver Arena, but still feels nerves no matter where she plays.
“It will be good. Yeah, I always love to engage with the crowd. I feel like everyone is really there for me trying to help me out. I just try my best every time,” she said.
“Yeah, honestly. I think everyone does. I mean, it will be weird if someone didn't get nervous. It's always different. Different emotions every match. But, yeah, some sort of nervousness.”