Destanee Aiava is the name, climbing up the ladder is her game! She once shared a grim story, saying, “I pretty much lost all my savings to fund my entire Europe trip. I was looking at selling my house or renting it out.” From there to qualifying for the main draw of the 2025 AO for the very first time in her career and then registering the biggest win of her career so far. Destanee Aiava has really come a long way! Recently, she defeated Belgium’s Greet Minnen in the first round of the AO. Shortly, after her emphatic three-set triumph over the Belgian, she posted a few pictures on her IG, and her husband, Corey Gaal was seen cheering her up through a comment on that post.

Corey Gaal is himself a tennis pro with a current singles ranking of 1277. The couple got engaged earlier last year and they got married later that year. Traveling without a coach during the Tour is always challenging. However, her husband and fellow touring professional Corey Gaal made things easier for her in each of her tough phases. Talking about tough phases, well there’s plenty for this 24-year-old Aussie. However, she has now started to take strides toward reaching the heights that she always desired.

After winning her match against Minnen, she said, “I’m just super happy to get through and finally win a first round of singles in a Grand Slam, especially at my home slam.” Then later on she shared a few glimpses of her memorable match on her IG handle with the caption, “magic.” In that post, we saw her fellow Aussie stars, dropping a few comments. For example, two-time Grand Slam doubles champion, Matthew Ebden showed his support for Destanee Aiava by dropping a “💪” in that post. Then the former world number in doubles, Storm Hunters commented, “Your court ❤️.”

Even the fans poured a lot of love and affection for Destanee Aiava for her incredible performance in that match. Talking about her fans, her biggest fan, Corey Gaal, wrote, “Only Just Getting Started. LETS TROT.”

Having his support through thick and thin means a lot to Aiava and she has time and again revealed that through her speeches. For example, while speaking on having Corey Gaal by her side during her traveling days, she once said, “It helped a lot having Corey around. I don’t think I necessarily need a coach but I just need someone to support me and help take my mind off tennis. I try not to stress too much about game plans.” Interestingly, this win in the first round of the 2025 Australian Open may well do wonders for Destanee Aiava for the rest of the year.

Destanee Aiava reveals why his first-round win “makes a world of difference” for her

If we look at Aiava’s dark phases in life, as per several reports, back in 2022, Destanee Aiava was contemplating jumping off a bridge when three people talked her out of it and drove her home. Explaining that moment, she further revealed, “I did not want to make it to my 22nd birthday.” So, things weren’t always a bed full of roses for this Aussie tennis player.

Reflecting further on her struggles, after her first-round win, Destanee Aiava spoke about how much this win can help her ease her problems in the next few months. Her first-round win ensured her a pay-cheque of at least $200,000 and talking about this amount the world number 195 pointed out that amount “makes a world of difference” when a player is ranked outside the Top 100. She believes lower-ranked players don’t attract many sponsorship deals which could help them a bit in covering all the necessary expenses during their traveling.

So, what does this win exactly mean to her? “It means that I can bring someone to travel with this year and I can afford to actually go to all the tournaments that I want to. It really helps. Financially, tennis is so expensive. I struggle traveling on my own,” she said. Destanee Aiava also added, “The fact that I get to bring my fiancé with me and hopefully one of my family members to the big ones (majors), it makes a world of a difference.” Destanee Aiava has gained quite a lot of followers and fans over the last few days due to her incredible performances at the 2025 AO. Can this incredible support help her go another step forward in the ‘Melbourne Slam’?