Daria Saville: Where are the brand deals for female players amidst 'tenniscore' trend?

Daria Saville is calling out marketing teams on behalf of female tennis players everywhere, questioning why the ones sweating on the courts aren’t the ones receiving brand deals.

“Tennis aesthetics are in right now, right?” the Aussie asks in her newest TikTok post. “It's all over the place, but female tennis players are not getting those brand deals. It's actually a tennis WAG that fit into the ‘aesthetics’ rather than us sweaty tennis players.”

In her TikTok posted on Tuesday, the former Top 20 player notes that the “glamorous life” and “sweat life” get treated differently, even though they both make up crucial halves of the sport.

"Surely there's space for both WAGs and female tennis players," Saville writes in the caption of her post, "but I feel like we always get left out."

And at the end of her vent session, Saville added she asked a few of her friends (and WAGs in question) about the sentinment behind the video before posting, assuring not only support for her perspective, but that she isn’t alone in feeling this way.

“I’ve spoken to a few influencer WAGs, and they're surprised that we don't get the same opportunities,” Saville says.

“Is it that athletes are not as relatable as WAGs to the audience?” she also asks. “Do marketing teams think tennis players are too niche compared to WAG? Is that the whole glamorous life compared to sweat life? Is it more inspiration to be a WAG than a female athlete?”

Read more: Why Morgan Riddle doesn’t shy away from “WAG” label

Her post has already been shared over 120 times, garnering comments from fellow WTA players like world No. 70 Eva Lys, who writes: "Yes. This is a great video. [I] was asking myself that as well. It’s incredibly tough (if [you're not Top 10)."

Saville is among numerous WTA players rankings who have built verifiable social media popularity outside of on-court results, and the momentum is only building in the space: from Daria Kasatkina and Caroline Garcia starting their own What the Vlog and Tennis Insider Club vlog and podcast channels, to the latest WTA rebrand.

“It’s honestly mind boggling to me that brands are picking influencers for their campaigns during Grand Slams, and I'm definitely not the only female tennis player that feels that way,” Saville says.

Read more: WTA makes call to 'rally the world' with 2025 rebrand

Her intention behind the video isn’t to take away from the influencer tennis aesthetic: It’s to recognize and reform how WTA players contribute to it.

And if it’s personality marketing teams are concerned about, Saville assures she’s got one—but “it’s just salty right now.”