Australia’s Daria Saville said Wednesday that she tore the ACL in her left knee during Tuesday’s match against Naomi Osaka in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Saville underwent an MRI exam on Wednesday that detected the seriousness of her injury. It is the second time in her career that she has sustained an ACL injury. The other time was in 2013.
“Torn ACL. 2013 flashbacks,” Saville said in a tweet. “… Don’t worry about me btw. I feel bad that everyone is so worried. I’m ok I promise. It’s just (s—) luck.”
She injured the knee this time while hitting a forehand shot in the second game of the first set against Osaka.
Saville reportedly screamed out “my knee” as the injury occurred. Osaka was stunned at first and then noticed her opponent was badly hurt.
“I thought that she was just yelling because she thought her forehand was out, then I realized that she was yelling because she was in pain,” Osaka said after Tuesday’s match.
“Then I got really scared because I felt like as athletes we have a pretty high pain tolerance. It seemed really bad.”
Saville also underwent Achilles tendon surgery in 2021.
Saville, 28, has won one singles title and three doubles crowns. She was ranked as high as No. 20 in singles in 2017.
She was previous known as Daria Gavrilova until marrying men’s player Luke Saville last year.
–Field Level Media