The one: Wildcard holder, the other: Even Lucky Loser – both 17 years young and since Saturday afternoon they are the surprise finalists of Moscow. Local hero Anastasia Potapova from Russia and Serbian Olga Danilovic were a big surprise at the WTA sand court tournament.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich never had such a great chance to win her first WTA title. At least from the paper form. But paper is patient – and so the world rankings-42nd from Belarus must continue to wait for their premiere coup in the professional circuit.
Sasnovich, who was seeded fifth in Moscow, failed 2:6, 7:5, 5:7 in the semi-final on Saturday due to Olga Danilovic, number 187 in the ranking. The favourite had been able to break the 17-year-old 5-5 in the decisive set, but left-hander Danilovic kept a cool head and entered her first final on the WTA Tour.
Lucky Loser Danilovic, who had already failed in the second qualifying round, had defeated the top seeded Wimbledon semi-finalist Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe) in the last eight round 6:3, 6:3 and provided for a second exclamation point, after sending Kaia Kanepi (Estonia/No. 8) home earlier.
The fact that the 750,000-dollar Moscow River Cup will feature a teen final based on the motto “Jugend forscht” is also due to the world rankings-204 by Anastasia Potapova. The Wimbledon junior women’s champion of 2016 benefited from the Slovenian defeat of Siegemund in the 3:6, 6:4, 5:2 against Tamara Zidansek (20) due to illness, but Potapova also showed great tennis in the semi-finals.
The winner of the Sensation final will receive 280 world ranking points and a handsome prize money of 163,265 dollars on Sunday. The dimensions of the success of the very young duo become clear above all with Danilovic. The Serbian number two has so far earned 39,748 dollars in her – admittedly still young – career. Potapova, the Russian number 18, already has a respectable 105,956 dollars.