Daria Kasatkina reached the final of the tournament in Eastbourne and returned to the top ten

In the final of the Rothesay International, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 500 grass tournament with a prize fund of $780,000 in Eastbourne, Britain, a Russian tennis player will play for the first time in ten years. This right was achieved by Daria Kasatkina, who, after a semifinal victory in two games over the Italian Camila Giorgi, returned to the top ten of the world ranking.

Of the seven WTA grass tournaments that take place in the three weeks leading up to Wimbledon, Eastbourne is perhaps the most prestigious and representative. True, this year the third racket of the world and last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who a week ago had not completely recovered from a viral disease, caught in Paris during the French Open, was removed from him this year. But even without her, four representatives of the top ten were in the grid – American Jessica Pegula (fourth in the world) and Coco Gauff (seventh), French Caroline Garcia (fifth) and Tunisian Uns Jabir (sixth).

Russian Daria Kasatkina, who in early June failed to confirm last year’s result at Roland Garros – the semi-final – and dropped out there in the fourth round, is currently in 11th place in the rankings. However, after Rybakina’s refusal, she was seeded in Eastbourne and used the opportunity to go as far along the grid as possible. Having confidently defeated Ukrainian Angelina Kalinina at the start, Kasatkina in three sets coped with the 18th racket of the world, Wimbledon 2021 finalist Czech Karolina Pliskova, and then won the first game against Caroline Garcia and took the lead in the second, after which the opponent decided not to continue the fight because for a right shoulder injury.

In the semi-finals, Kasatkina’s rival was Camila Giorgi, an experienced 31-year-old Italian who, not shining at WTA grass tournaments, nevertheless reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2018.

A week earlier in Birmingham, Georgie lost in the first round to the famous 43-year-old American Venus Williams, who has won only two matches in the last two seasons, but in Eastbourne in the second round, unexpectedly easily knocked last year’s Wimbledon finalist Uns Jabir out of the net.

From the point of view of the quality of the game, it certainly was not the best semi-final. First of all, because Georgie was extremely unstable, sinning with controversial decisions on the back line and made ten double faults. Having exchanged breaks with her opponent at the beginning of the match, Kasatkina then confidently took the first set, and in the second game, having led 4:1, she lost the advantage. But the opponent’s oversights and her own more stable game helped bring the matter to the third set again. As a result – 6:2, 7:5 in 1 hour 23 minutes, and now on Saturday Kasatkina, who returned to the top ten before the start of Wimbledon, will meet with the American Madison Keys, who outplayed her compatriot Gauff in the other semi-final with a noticeable advantage – 6 :3, 6:3.

Although Russian tennis players had previously reached the finals of the tournament in Eastbourne seven times, only Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2004, Ekaterina Makarova in 2010 and Elena Vesnina in 2013 managed to take titles there.

As for the meeting with Keys, Kasatkina faces a very difficult task. The American currently stands noticeably lower in the ranking, at 25th place, but in a series of personal meetings with the Russian woman, she leads with a noticeable advantage – 8:2.

In addition, the aggressive tennis of the Keys is the best match for the grass surface, on which she won two of her six titles – just in Eastbourne in 2014 and in Birmingham in 2016. Kasatkina cannot boast of such successes on grass. She only has the Birmingham final of 2021 on her account, so the American should still be considered the favorite of the upcoming match.

Evgeny Fedyakov