Kasatkina knocked out a former compatriot from the “thousand” and again became the first racket of Russia.
Kirill Veyovich August 16, 2023, 21:20 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
But Anastasia Potapova did not cope with the Wimbledon champion.
On Wednesday, August 16, the WTA-1000 tournament in Cincinnati (USA) hosts the second round matches. In one of the matches, the racket number 13 in the world, the Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina, and her former compatriot Varvara Gracheva, who now represents France, faced each other. The main intrigue of this confrontation was the following: will the Roland Garros 2022 semifinalist be able to regain the title of the country’s first racket, which Lyudmila Samsonova snatched from her after Montreal.
Kasatkina successfully started in the “thousand” in Cincinnati, defeating the owner of the courts, Python Stearns – 6:2, 6:1. Gracheva, in turn, in the first round of the competition quite easily met the former leader of the WTA rating, Caroline Wozniacki, who recently returned to the tour, – 6: 4, 6: 4. Thus, the draw brought Daria and Varvara together for the third time this season and fourth time in their career. The first match in Melbourne-2021 was left to the 26-year-old native of Togliatti, but then her opponent won two fights, at the Australian Open and at Indian Wells-2023. Therefore, Daria, as never before, was determined to take revenge on the former Russian for previous failures.
Reporting party started unexpectedly under the dictation of Gracheva. In the first two games alone, the 23-year-old Muscovite had a total of six (!) break points, but she couldn’t convert any of them. Her opponent drew all the key balls over and over again, leaving a dangerous count. The girls kept up their feeds until the score was 3:3, but it was Varvara who couldn’t take it first. The newly minted Frenchwoman gave her throw almost to zero, allowing her opponent to take the lead in the set – 4: 3.
Daria Kasatkina
Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
In relation to this situation, we can remember the usual phrase of commentators: “You don’t break, they break you.” Gracheva did not use any of the opportunities provided, unlike his opponent, who managed to turn the tide of the game and then, as it turned out, the fight as a whole. After the former Russian missed a serve in the first set, she lost seven (!) subsequent games.
The 23-year-old Muscovite was unsuccessful on the court: the ball constantly flew out of bounds after her blows, and her own active and, most importantly, accurate actions were very few. Kasatkina was even able to hang a hidden “shuttle” on her opponent, but Varvara still managed to take the sixth game of the second game – 5: 1. But this circumstance did not prevent the racket number 13 in the world from settling in the next match all the issues of the meeting. 6:3, 6:1 – With this score, Daria closed her opponent in two sets, regained the title of the first racket of Russia and entered the third round in Cincinnati. Next, the French Open semifinalist will play the winner of the pairing Arina Sobolenko – Ann Lee.
Another Russian woman held their meeting on August 16 – Anastasia Potapova. The rival of the 22-year-old Saratov native in the second round of the prestigious “thousand” in Cincinnati had a very difficult one – the winner of Wimbledon-2023, the representative of the Czech Republic Marketa Vondrousova. The girls met three times on the court and the last time this year was at the competitions in Linz. That tournament is truly significant for Anastasia, because she was victorious.
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The new confrontation clearly began according to the scenario of the Russian woman. Potapova acted more actively and accurately, and already at the opening of the game she made a break – 2: 0. Then the girls exchanged games on their serve – 3:1. Until the middle of the game, it was Anastasia who dictated the conditions to her opponent on the court. However, in the end, it was the national tennis player who collapsed. The former ITF World No.1 ranked junior led 4:3, 30:0 on her serve, but she lost all of her advantage to her own mistakes. First, Potapova dropped her serve, and then the next two games of the set. At the end of the game, Marketa gradually joined the game – she improved the serve, began to attack well and deservedly won – 6: 4.
Marketa Vondrousov
Photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images
The second batch, as expected, was dictated by the eminent Czech. The Russian has yet to move away from the failure in the debut set, and the score was already smoldering at a nasty 1-5. It’s worth noting that Potapova ultimately lost serve, which logically resulted in a large number of unforced errors and 0 innings won. Yes, Anastasia took two games in the game, but this is the case when Marketa literally gave them away with her own inaccurate actions. 6:4, 6:2 – with this score, in 72 minutes, the royal slam champion defeated the Russian woman and reached the third round of the tournament in Cincinnati. For reaching the 1/4 final of the competition, Marketa will play with the American Sloane Stevens.
The unified tournament in Cincinnati will end on August 20.
