Gavrilova targets Zhuhai as tour hits Asia

Daria Gavrilova is targeting a place in the field at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, in what would be a fitting conclusion to a breakthrough season.

Gavrilova, currently ranked No.21, outlined her plans when discussing her schedule for the rest of 2017.

“I’m playing my first tournament in Japan and then I’m doing China and I’ll play my last tournament in Russia in my birth town (of Moscow), but I’m Australian,” laughed Gavrilova, who will feature at this week’s Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

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“A few more tournaments before the end of the season and my biggest goal is to make it to Zhuhai, the year-end tournament.”

Often derided as the season-ending event after the “season-ending” WTA Finals in Singapore, Zhuhai is nonetheless a prestigious $2.28 million purse featuring the 12 highest-ranked players who don’t qualify for Singapore.

At 22nd in the Race – 14th if you discount the top eight players bound for Singapore – Gavrilova is in the hunt to score a place, thanks to a breakthrough season.

It peaked with her victory in New Haven – her first WTA title – and was also notable for a trip to the final in Strasbourg, where she fell in a thriller to fellow Aussie Sam Stosur. She also reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and quarterfinals in Rome, Rabat and Birmingham.

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Gavrilova has since leaped Stosur to become the No.1-ranked Australian female, cracking the top 20 after her New Haven victory.

She said she was looking forward to the Asian swing, which she enjoyed from a scheduling perspective.

“We mostly play the biggest tournaments where we can get in and right now there is this Asian swing and it’s just comfortable, because every tournament is just so close to each other and just a short flight,” she said.

“That’s basically how we choose tournaments. If you’re ranked a bit lower, it’s the same principle – you’re not going to go to Malaysia and then play in, I don’t know, America or Europe, and then come back to South Africa (laughter).

“It’s pretty much location-based and depending on what your ranking goals are you might play lower (level) tournaments to get more matches or play bigger tournaments to get more points.”

Gavrilova opens her campaign in Tokyo against a qualifier; the winner books a date with No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova.