The top seeded Daria Kasatkina has gambled away her premature semi-final entry in the WTA Elite Trophy and must now hope for help from her shooters.
Kasatkina just can’t win against Madison Keys. The Russian conceded against the former US Open finalist from Florida at 2:6, 4:6 already her fourth defeat in the fourth comparison. Kasatkina was able to record just one movement in the duels so far.
The key to success against Keys – for the world ranking tenth untraceable, also in China. I guess that’s what they call an anxiety monger.
21-year-old Kasatkina could have made it into the semi-finals of the B-World Cup early with a win after winning the first game of the Azalea group on Tuesday 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 against Chinese local hero Qiang Wang (WTA 22). There had been a total of 17 breaks.
Now Kasatkina is dependent on the help of Wang. In the duel with Keys, number 16 in the WTA ranking, the right-hander from Togliatty gave up her service six times (6 double faults/0 aces) and only scored the point in 29 percent of the cases when she had to pass the second serve.
Kasatkina had travelled to Zhuhai full of self-confidence. From Singapore, by the way, where she watched a few matches from the stands last week as a substitute in the WTA final. In her luggage, the world number tenth, one of the season’s promoted, had the tournament victory of Moscow.