The qualifying player, the Russian Daria Kasatkina, scored the biggest surprise of the J&T Banka Ostrava Open and their best win in 12 months with a 6-2, 3-6 and 6-3 first-round win over Number 6 Seeds, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, in an hour and 51 minutes.
Unsurprisingly, the Russian’s final numbers (15 winners versus 14 casual mistakes versus Rybakina’s 35:49 ratio) show how close her performance was, but her ability to constantly place the ball in awkward positions on the court.
The Russian played very solidly from behind and managed to neutralize her rival’s strong serve as well as her constant attacks and winning shots. With one set per side, it was Daria Kasatkina who remained more solid on serve, and an early break in the third set was enough to take the win.
A service winner, who maintained a 73% first serve percentage throughout the game, sealed Daria Kasatkina’s victory on her third match point. Daria Kasatkina’s next challenge will be against US Open semi-finalist Jennifer Brady, who also came from behind to beat Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
Jabeur, Muchova, Gauff, Kudermetova also advance to the next round
In the other games on Tuesday, the Tunisian defeated Ons Jabeur the Czech Barbora Strycova 6: 2, 6: 2. The Czech Karolina Muchova defeated the Chinese Shuai Zhang 6: 1, 6: 1.
The American Cori Gauff defeated the Czech Katerina Siniakova 7: 5, 6: 4. The Russian Veronika Kudermetova defeated the Croatian Donna Vekic 6: 2, 6: 4. The game plan for Wednesday is: Amanda Animisova against (7) Elise Mertens, (6) Victoria Azarenka against Barbora Krejcikova, Jelena Ostapenko against (5) Petra Martic, (1) Elina Svitolina against Maria Sakkari, (8) Anett Kontaveit against Sara Torribes Tormo. Photo credit: J&T Banka Ostrava Open
