The semi-finals were held at the WTA-500 series tournaments in Bad Homburg and Eastbourne on Friday, June 28. From the Russians, Diana Schneider and Daria Kasatkina participated.
Diana Schneider (47) competed with Emma Navarro (19) for the first 500m final of her career in Bad Homburg. The girls met for the second time: they previously met a month ago in the final of the WTA-125 clay court tournament in Paris. In that match, the Russian tennis player won (6:2, 3:6, 6:4).
On the way to the semi-finals in Bad Homburg, Schneider defeated Angelique Kerber, Dayana Yastremska and Paula Badosa. Navarro defeated Jacqueline Christian, Python Stearns and Caroline Wozniacki in Germany.
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The tennis players started today’s match with a very tenacious game. They spent 19 minutes in the first three games, two of which were difficult for Schneider on his serve. In the third minigame, the score reached “exactly” nine times: Diana was able to recover four break points, but she did not have enough precision to preserve the dangerous fifth point. Navarro led with a 2: 1 advantage, but already in the middle of the game the Russian, after losing 1: 3, 15:40 on her serve, was able to make a counterattack.
Today, compared to previous matches, Schneider found it more difficult to win the rallies, he had to endure a lot and not give up psychologically from the game; Navarro played with quality, tried to score points with quick attacks and chased down many balls that the Russian threw at her through the corners.
The result of the first set was literally decided in several important plays with Navarro’s serve with a score of 5:6. The American tennis player’s hand shook a couple of times, while the Russian, on the contrary, played with a little more confidence and precision. In the end, Schneider completed the opening match in his favor in 1 hour and 4 minutes (7:5). Even despite the greater number of unforced errors compared to his opponent (24 for the Russian compared to 15 for the American).
Diana Schneider
Photo: Cameron Smith/Getty Images
The second set, like the first, was a difficult one for Diana. She gave two of her serves to her opponent, risking missing the game with the shuttlecock entirely, but Navarro’s errors in important rallies helped the Russian to take a couple of her games. Otherwise, the American looked fresher and more stable than the Russian. This allowed Emma to take the game with a score of 6:2 and take the match to the deciding set.
Schneider looked for opportunities for aggressive shots and counterattacks, but the balls too often went into touch. In the middle of the decisive match, the Russian called a doctor, complained of pain in his neck and a medical time-out was called. Immediately after this, Diana took her opponent’s serve and Emma made unforced errors and lost the advantage she had had throughout the match. In the end, the Russian won 7:5, 2:6, 6:3.
For Schneider, this is her first final on grass and in a WTA-500 tournament. She will compete for the trophy in Bad Homburg with the winner of the match between Victoria Tomova and Donna Vekic. According to the results of the contest, Diana will occupy at least 36th place, her highest position in her ranking. If she wins, the Russian will become number 30 in the world.
Daria Kasatkina also competed for the final in Eastbourne. The Russian (14) played for a ticket to the decisive round with Yasmin Paolini (7). This was the sixth meeting for the girls; almost all their previous matches were intense competition. The last time the tennis players played on clay in Palermo was in July last year, then the Italian won in 2.5 hours 6:4, 4:6, 6:3. Daria last beat Yasmin in 2019.
If in the three previous matches in Eastbourne with Xinyu Wang, Yuan Yue and Emma Raducanu Kasatkina needed time to come into play, today the match with Paolini immediately began with active actions and a successful game in the reception. It seemed that after this it would be easy for Daria to take the initiative, but an unstable serve prevented her from doing so, so in the next game the Russian could not confirm the break that she had made earlier.
In the first game, Kasatkina gave a couple more of her serves, which helped the Italian a lot. Paolini herself played much more clearly and cleanly, while Kasatkina lacked initiative and confidence in her actions. In the end, Yasmin took the first set in 42 minutes and with a score of 6:3, and also significantly surpassed Daria in statistics in the number of actively won moves (13 for the Italian compared to 3 for the Russian).
Yasmin Paolini
Photo: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images
Kasatkina continued to fight, pushing her opponent into the corners and herself into the net. Daria was a little nervous and in the third game she cursed the racket. In the sixth game, the Russian got four break points, but due to overly cautious play she was unable to capitalize on any of them, although she confidently took her next serve to love.
Paolini tried to be aggressive as usual today, but she failed a lot, even though the Italian’s attacks were excellent. Yasmin lacked concentration in the decisive rallies, which is why she gave the second set to Kasatkina (7:5) on her own serve.
The decisive match started with a powerful rally by Paolini and an early break. With the score at 2:2, the Italian had three more chances to take the lead, but Kasatkina was restrained and brilliantly saved her serve at 0:40. After that, something changed in Yasmin’s game: strange inaccuracies began to appear, the spirit of the game disappeared and the attacks weakened. All the initiative passed into Daria’s hands. The Russian qualitatively alternated aggressive actions with defensive play, which helped her to emerge victorious from this match. On the fourth match point she defeated the resilient Paolini 3:6, 7:5, 6:3.
Kasatkina reached her fourth final this season and the third of her career on grass. She also defended points from last year’s decider at Eastbourne. Now Daria will compete with Leila Fernández for her first title since 2022. And she will follow all the events in Bad Homburg and Eastbourne in the “Championship”.
