For Daria Kasatkina, every meeting with Elina Svitolina becomes a kind of self-improvement. The statistics of personal meetings between Russians and Ukrainians are completely grim. Daria lost all seven meetings before the head-to-head showdown at the WTA 500 tournament in Washington, and Kasatkina lost the last five matches in straight sets. In addition, the Russian tennis player lost 80 percent of the fights against her opponent only on hard. It is on this surface that the tournament in the United States takes place.
Today, the first rackets from Russia and Ukraine have already brought the batch on the gridiron to the 1/8 final. With Kasatkina, in addition to preparing for the USOpen, also struggling to break into the final eight in the world rankings at the end of the season, meeting the most uncomfortable opponent early in the tournament was like death.
Elina Svitolina continues to play successfully on tour after the birth of her son. The Ukrainian has already won the title in French Strasbourg, reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, climbing into the top 30.
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The first set immediately revealed a certain lack of confidence in the Russians. The first two draws passed calmly and peacefully, and already in the third game Svitolina made a break on Daria’s serve. And in general, Elina was faster, smarter and sharper than our athlete. And in those moments when, apparently, the Odessa woman gave her service, Dasha began to give up sharply, to the point that she could not beat quite simple balls. Kasatkina’s confidence was not added to by the fact that in every game on her field she committed a couple of double faults, accompanying the misses with loud and irritable speeches directed at her coach. The beating lasted just over half an hour and as a result – a deaf 2:6.
All Daria Kasatkina’s problems were in the game on the baseline. For some reason, the Russian woman does not really like the game on the net, preferring long draws based on the opponent’s mistakes. Elina, especially on such a fast surface, sees the court extremely well, especially if she is so open to her actions. Svitolina very calmly moved Dasha around the corners, varying and intensifying the speed of the ball as she wanted. The Ukrainian looked like a chess grandmaster who acts a few steps ahead and thinks through each action in advance.
The second set of the 11th racket in the world started even worse than the first. The opponent made two breaks, taking two more of her submissions, which finally broke the no longer better morale of the Russian woman. As a result, Kasatkina stopped resisting, and along with the second set she meekly gave up the entire match. 2:6, 2:6.
