Daria Kasatkina suffered an advantageous defeat

At the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, the final tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) with the participation of eight of the strongest tennis players in the world and a prize fund of $5 million, Russian participant Daria Kasatkina played her first match. Having lost in two games to world ranking leader Iga Swiatek from Poland, she nevertheless received 125 rating points – more than goes to the semi-finalists of some WTA tournaments. In the second match of the group stage, Kasatkina will face American Coco Gauff.

The final tournaments, which are held by the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), have several not very noticeable from the outside, but quite fundamental differences. One of them concerns the accrual of rating points in the group stage. If for men only the winners of 12 matches receive them, then for women the losers are also encouraged. They are entitled to 125 points each, exactly two times less than their more successful rivals. Thus, an athlete who fails in three meetings has the opportunity to earn 375 points. For comparison, the WTA 250 champions get 280 points, their finalists get 180, and the semi-finalists get 110. That is, losing in the women’s final tournament is also quite profitable.

Daria Kasatkina, the first Russian participant in the WTA Finals since 2016, was very unlucky with her opponent in the opening match.

She turned out to be Iga Shventek, with whom Kasatkina has already met four times this season and, having lasted a total of 4 hours and 48 minutes, was able to take only 14 games. When the polka is in optimal condition, the rhythmic and not too aggressive tennis of the Russian woman suits her very well. Unsurprisingly, this time it all ended pretty quickly. Yielding to Shventek on the back line, Kasatkina tried, but failed to find any new successful tactical moves, did not realize all three of her break points and, having given her serve three times, lost in 1 hour 22 minutes – 2: 6, 3 :6. Nevertheless, the Russian woman, of course, earned her legitimate points. Swiatek also became the first tennis player since 2014 to defeat the same opponent for the fifth time in one season.

There is, of course, nothing surprising in this absolutely unambiguous result, but Kasatkina’s position cannot be called hopeless. In order to maintain real chances of reaching the semi-finals, she now needs to defeat the fourth racket of the world Coco Gauff on Thursday, who, in turn, with a score of 4:6, 3:6, and even faster, in 1 hour 18 minutes, lost Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia.

The American, after reaching the finals of Roland Garros, does not differ in particular stability, and Kasatkina has already lost twice.

One of their matches, by the way, was played in April of this year at the clay tournament in Stuttgart, where the Russian was much more stable and won in two games. True, hard is laid in Fort Worth, but in women’s tennis, coverage is not always a key factor, especially since on hard American courts Kasatkina generally looked no worse this season and even won two titles. In general, it is possible that the meeting with 29-year-old Caroline Garcia, the most experienced and, perhaps, the most unpredictable tennis player of the entire Texas eight, will be decisive for her. The Frenchwoman has a controversial season behind her, in which there were both brightest ups (US Open semi-finals plus titles in Bad Homburg, Warsaw and Cincinnati) and frequent failures (seven defeats in the first rounds). However, judging by the quality of the game demonstrated in the meeting with Gauff, now it is set up as it should.

Meanwhile, one of the main features of the current tournament is the lack of proper spectator interest. After the 14,000-seat Dickies Arena was about one-tenth full on the first day, WTA Finals organizers slashed ticket prices for Tuesday’s matches to promote them, with the cheapest tickets selling for $6. The size of the prize fund of the competition, which is only $5 million, speaks of the serious marketing problems of the WTA. This, by the way, is almost three times less than the prize fund of the final ATP tournament, which this year will be a record one and will reach almost $15 million.

Evgeny Fedyakov