The Russian Daria Kasatkina won the title at the WTA tournament in Moscow. In the final, the local heroine defeated Ons Jabeur from Tunisia in a dramatic 2-6, 7-6 (3) and 6-4 final.
Jabuer started nervously, lost her first service game, but then, like the whole week, managed to keep up with aggressive and stable baseline tennis. The clear outsider against local hero Daria Kasatkina didn’t burn for long, took the balls early and scored with the element of surprise.
Kasatkina was visibly overwhelmed with what Jabeur opposed and made mistakes. Mistakes that gave the world number 101 self-confidence and gave the 24-year-old three service games from Kasatkina.
After only 24 minutes the first set went clearly 6:2 to Jabeur.
Jabeur also missed the start of the second run and promptly gave up her service game. However, the story of the opening set should repeat itself, the 24-year-old took the serve off the world rankings 13th again and took the lead with a break.
Jabeur had to deal with the nerves of the approaching first WTA triumph. Kasatkina didn’t get up, took advantage of her opponent’s weak phase and equalized a 4-1 deficit. At 5-5, the favorite needed five break points before she took the lead with a break and 6-5.
Jabeur caught himself, worked his way through three re-break balls and immediately hit back to 6-6. The decision in Moscow was made in the tiebreak, in which both players initially played their own serve without any self-confidence.
The first six points went to the return club before Kasatkina scored the first point in the service – 4:3. Jabeur did not find her way back to serve and had to accept the set equalization with a 3:7 in the tiebreak.
In the decision set around the crown at the Kremlin Cup the spectators got to see great tennis, which could hardly be surpassed in tension. Kasatkina took the lead with a break and 2:0, Jabeur fought his way back and equalled. In the meantime, the Tunisian led with 21:5 with the Vorhandwinnern. By the middle of the third set, Jabeur had beaten 41 winners, but had also produced 56 mistakes without any need.
The qualifier paid tribute to the strenuous week of the tournament and had Kasatkina pull away. The 24-year-old’s body language became more and more negative and the local heroine on the other side served to win the title.
Jabeur, plagued by thigh cramps, took a full risk at the return and actually made the break to 4-5. The challenger didn’t sit up at the side change, stretched herself and buried herself in her towel.
The following service game served Jabeur with tears, could barely stand and gave him away to the match loss to zero. Kasatkina fell to her knees in joy after the match point, Jabeur dropped to the hall floor in pain. With great respect, Kasatkina, who was also overwhelmed by feelings, stepped on the other side, embraced Jabeur intimately and helped the medical professionals to drag her opponent off the field.
For Kasatkina it is the second Tite on the WTA-Tour