Daria Saville has had her Wimbledon dream derailed after a confetti-throwing protester disrupted her match and, seemingly, her concentration, leading to the end of the Australian women’s challenge at the grass-court slam.
Saville was leading 4-2 in a first-set tiebreak against British No 1 Katie Boulter when an elderly Just Stop Oil protester burst on to court 18 as the players were going to the changeover on Wednesday.
After throwing the confetti, mixed with jigsaw pieces, on to the grass in what was the second protest of its kind during the day, he was bundled away by security before Saville helped court staff clean up the confetti while Boulter went into more of a cocoon of concentration at courtside.
When they resumed play five minutes later, Saville’s poise seemed to have disappeared as the British player immediately took control and won the next nine points in a row, taking the tiebreak 7-4 before then winning the first game of the second set.
Saville, who has been making a comeback after a serious knee injury, then crumbled as Boulter, the girlfriend of the Australian No 1 Alex de Minaur, went on to win 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 in a match that lasted just under two hours over the two rain-interrupted days.
With Storm Hunter having gone out on the first day, there are no more Australian women left in the singles main draw.
Saville’s defeat came just before Sydneysider Alexei Popyrin threw away a 4-1 lead in the final set of his see-saw first-round match against the rising Swiss player Dominic Stricker and looked a picture of frustration after a 3-6 6-3 6-2 4-6 7-5 loss.
On another rain-interrupted day, with a one-and-half hour delay before the start of the Popyrin match, which also featured another couple of shorter stoppages, six Australians were in action in total on Wednesday.
Aleksandar Vukic had been due to make it a full set of the remaining Aussies but his second round match against France’s Quentin Halys has been put back a day due to the delays.
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