On Saturday, February 10, the semifinal matches of the WTA-500 tournament were played in Abu Dhabi (UAE). Russian tennis players participated in both matches. The first to take to the court were Daria Kasatkina, seventh seed, and the Brazilian Beatrice Haddad-Maia (6).
Kasatkina faced Romanian Sorana Cirstei with more confidence in the quarterfinals, winning 11 games in a row and defeating her 6:2, 6:0. Haddad-Maya tried a little harder, but she too needed two games to defeat three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur (Tunisia, 2) 6:3, 6:4.
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Before the semi-final, the score of head-to-head matches was reportedly 2-0 in favor of Haddad-Maya. Last year he won twice in tough conditions: in the second round in Doha and in the semifinals in Zhuhai, both times in straight sets. Today Kasatkina managed to clear the score.
At the beginning of the match the tennis players exchanged breaks – 1:1. Here there was a slight glitch in Kasatkina’s game, as a result of which Haddad-Maya almost took the lead. The Brazilian broke her serve and in the fourth game she got a triple break point. But after that, the Russian finally managed to improve her serve and saved the game from 0:40 to 2:2.
This development of events did not have the best effect on Beatrice’s future actions, but Daria, on the contrary, improved. In the fifth game she made a second break, and in the seventh she made another break, already zero. And she with 5:2 she served for the game. She did not succeed, but in the next game, regularly attacking even in the reception, she scored the third break in a row: 6: 3 in 41 minutes.
Daria Kasatkina
Photo: Christopher Pike/Getty Images
Daria Kasatkina at the Abu Dhabi tournament in 2024
Kasatkina also started the second set well: a confident service game and then a break to love for 2-0. But Haddad-Maya, who no longer had any margin for error, did not allow the Russian to hold out in the game. The Brazilian took the next four games, making two breaks; Furthermore, in the second game she escaped a break point herself. Daria had a chance to restore the balance, but in the eighth game she missed two break points and instead of 4: 4 it turned out 3: 5. And with 5:4 Beatrice served for the set: 6:4 in 55 minutes.
Kasatkina began the decisive game by returning her serve. In the third game, Haddad-Maia was close to another break, but the Russians got involved in time and avoided a completely unpleasant situation. And in the fourth game, Daria managed to equalize: 2:2! Then Kasatkina surprisingly lost her game with 40:0, making several mistakes in a row, but immediately scored a reverse break: 3:3. In the eighth game, the Russian had a great opportunity to take a decisive lead, but she missed a double break point and then another (4:4).
In the long ninth game, Daria showed not only skill, but also character: she recovered two hidden match points and recovered her serve on several game points. Kasatkina performed a similar trick in the eleventh game, recovering two more break points (meaning, again, hidden match points!). But on the reception, the Russian tennis player had no chance of catching her opponent’s serve, so the tiebreaker decided everything. And then Daria performed very well: after the score was 2: 2, she made five moves in a row and won a tough victory: 6: 3, 4: 6, 7: 6 (7: 2) in 3 hours and 2 minutes . .
“Beatrice is a wonderful fighter, one of the best on the circuit. Her level of commitment on the court is incredible. She didn’t give me anything for nothing. I had to earn the victory with my work,” Kasatkina said in an on-court interview after the match.
And in the second semifinal Lyudmila Samsonova (8) and Moscow’s Elena Rybakina (1) played, representing Kazakhstan. Whatever they say, Samsonova and Rybakina are tennis players of slightly different status. Elena has already won TBS (Wimbledon 2022), and was the third racket in the world (and is now fifth). Lyudmila has no such achievements yet.
It is even more surprising that before today’s match the personal match score was 4-0 in favor of Samsonova! At the same time, they played with each other exclusively in hard mode. At Montreal 2021 Lyudmila won 6:4, 5:7, 6:4, at Tokyo 2022 she won 6:2, 6:4, at Montreal 2023 she won 1:6, 6:1, 6:2, also in the semifinals , and then won 7:6 (9:7), 6:3 in the Beijing 2023 semifinals.
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Rybakina immediately confirmed her status as the favorite, to such an extent that she fired Samsonova. She took the first four games without problems. The Kazakhstan representative started the fifth game at 0:30, but then her serve worked again. And in the sixth game, Elena took advantage of the third set point on the reception: 6-0 in just 25 minutes.
In the second game, Samsonova finally managed to get into the game. And the first eight plays were his: 2-0. Rybakina, after taking serve in the third game, was able to equalize the score, but did not convert both break points. After that, Lyudmila once again took someone else’s serve, but immediately received a break for 4:2. In the eighth game, Elena had a break point, but Samsonova recovered it thanks to her serve. This allowed him to serve for the set at 5:4. The Russian scored the first set point: 6:4 in 50 minutes.
In the deciding set, Rybakina was the first to reach break points. It happened in the second game, in which Samsonova committed two double faults. But the Russians managed to recover 1:1. However, in the future Elena acted better. Lyudmila, moreover, in the fourth game, in which she only managed to score one point, made a double on a break point, and soon Rybakina went ahead 4: 1 with a break. After that, the opponents each took one service game (5:2), and in the eighth game the representative of Kazakhstan converted the first match point on serve: 6:0, 4:6, 6:2 in 1 hour 51 minutes. . Rybakina turned out to be better than Samsonova both in aces (9 against 6) and in double faults (1 against 7).
Thus, Kasatkina and Rybakina will play the “five hundred” final in Abu Dhabi. For Daria, this will be the second final of the season (after the loss to Adelaide) and the 15th of her career (statistics from previous title matches are 6-8). Elena, who has already won Brisbane in 2024, will also have her second title fight of the season. Her record in her finals is 6-9. And in personal meetings they have equality: 2-2.
