Junior Fed Cup Final:

RUSSIA (2) defeated CHINA (1) 2-1
Ran Tian (CHN) d. Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) 46 63 75
Daria Gavrilova (RUS) d. Haochen Tang (CHN) 62 62
Daria Gavrilova/ Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) d. Ran Tian/Saisai Zheng (CHN) 75 64

What an incredible few months for Daria Gavrilova, eh? Since July she has won the Youth Olympic Gold Medal, Junior US Open and now the Junior Fed Cup.

Junior Davis Cup Final:

JAPAN (3) defeated CANADA (2) 2-0
Kazuma Kawachi (JPN) d. Edward Nguyen (CAN) 76(4) 61
Kaichi Uchida (JPN) d. Filip Peliwo (CAN) 62 63
Doubles not played

For those of you who don’t know, the 1st Youth Olympic Games in Singapore have been going on for the past week. Tennis is of course on the bill and some of the best junior tennis players in the world have participated in the event. Today 16-year-old Daria Gavrilova, a Foot Fault favourite, defeated China’s Zheng Saisai to clinch the Gold Medal for Russia.

Dasha is a great personality and a fun player to watch on court. Her signature plays are her dropshots and angles, and it is so refreshing to see a junior playing with variety and court sense. After losing the first set of the final I was convinced she was going to crumble, but she dug deep, pumped herself up and then reeled off 12 games in a row from 2-6 1-2 down to take the match 2-6 6-2 6-0. Crazy, no? Here and here are some videos of Dasha in action from earlier on this week.

‘Crazy’ is pretty much the only word that can possibly describe Daria Gavrilova. Following her match and during a rain delay, she decided to have a dance-off with fellow player Timea Babos, which led to spectators and fellow players joining in with the celebrations. (via. the ITF Olympic Blog):

Rain stopped play at Kallang Tennis Centre mid-way through the boys’ doubles final on Friday evening, leaving a sell-out Centre Court crowd with nothing to watch.

That was until Timea Babos and Daria Gavrilova, the newly crowned Youth Olympic singles champion, treated spectators to a spontaneous dance-off.

The two players, who are scheduled to face each other in the bronze medal doubles match, showed off an array of dance moves – each one greeted by raucous cheers from the watching fans.

So popular was the Centre Court party that other players came to join in. Russian doubles pair Victor Baluda and Mikhail Biryukov arrived with Damir Dzumhur, and then they were joined by Oliver Golding, Yulia Putintseva and Darian King, to name just some.

It wasn’t only the players getting in on the act, though. Members of the public were also invited to take part as the resident DJ increased the volume and drummed up support over the loud speaker.

As more and more people entered the fray, Centre Court began to resemble a late night disco rather than the field of play at an Olympic venue. It was a remarkable moment that will live long in the memory.

Also:

[..] That is unless your name is Daria Gavrilova, who left the venue during the rain break to have lunch. The 16 year-old didn’t realise the sun had come out and came close to missing her semifinal match.

“I was late for my match,” explained Gavrilova. “I was so nervous that I was going to miss it. I was crying in the taxi on the way and then I was on my last call when I got here.”

As a result of her win, Dasha will rise to #1 in the Junior Rankings for the first time in her career. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of her in the near future. The tournament will reach it’s climax tomorrow, with the Boys Singles, Boys and Girls Doubles and a few Bronze Medals to be decided (including Dasha in the Girls Doubles Bronze Medal Match). Streams will be available at http://www.youtholympicgames.org/.

(Pictures: Daylife)