WTA Elite Trophy: 17 breaks: Kasatkina must fight hard for opening victory

The top seeded Daria Kasatkina just managed to avoid a false start at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. There were 17 breaks in the match against Qiang Wang.

Kasatkina had travelled to China full of self-confidence. From Singapore, by the way, where the Russian player was a substitute in last week’s WTA finals and watched several matches from the stands. In her luggage, the world number tenth, one of the season’s promoted, had the tournament victory of Moscow.

But the sixth victory in a row was not an easy success for Kasatkina, who among other things made nine double faults. It took the 21-year-old almost two hours to defeat the Chinese local hero Qiang Wang (WTA No. 22) in the first match of the “Azalea” group with 6:1, 2:6, 7:5.

The duel became a true break festival. Nine times Kasatkina took the service from her opponent, eight times Wang succeeded. In the decisive third run alone there were nine breaks. The favourite then took her chance and brought her service (for the second time in this set) through to 7:5.

On Wednesday, Kasatkina, French Open and Wimbledon quarter-finalists 2018, could already make it through to the semi-finals with another win over Madison Keys. However, the Russian has lost all three previous duels with the American – and was only able to win a single set.

Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka also celebrated the opening coup on Tuesday. The Belgian Mertens beat Anett Kontaveit (Estonia) 6-3, 6-1, who will be the first opponent of defending champion Julia Görges in the “Rose” group on Wednesday. The Belarusian Sabalenka did not miss a beat in the 6:4, 6:4 against Ashleigh Barty (Australia) and leads the “Orchid” group first.