The Russian Daria Kasatkina, 14th player in the world, won her first major title on grass on Saturday, the seventh of her career in total, by dominating the Canadian Leylah Fernandez (6-3, 6-4) on Saturday in the final of the WTA 500 tournament. ‘Eastbourne. This is also her first title since the 2022 season, a good omen two days before the start of the Wimbledon tournament, where the Russian reached the quarter-finals in 2018.
Against Fernandez, Kasatkina led throughout the first set, breaking her opponent twice, guilty of a double fault on the set point (6-3). The match was tighter in the second set, the Canadian, visibly bothered by pain in her left shoulder, held the match until 4-4 before losing her serve again at the worst moment, to finally lose in 1h50.
At Wimbledon, Daria Kasatkina, who will be seeded N.14, will face the Chinese Shuai Zhang (677th in the world) in the first round while Leylah Fernandez (N.3) will face the Italian Lucia Bronzetti (64th in the WTA) .
Schneider triomphe from Bad Homburg
Diana Shnaider has also reached a milestone. The 20-year-old world number 47 won the first WTA 500 tournament of her career on Saturday in Bad Homburg, beating Croatian Donna Vekic (number 49) in the final in three sets (6-3, 2-6, 6-3). The young Russian, who is playing her second season on the main circuit, won in just over two hours, two days before her first-round match at Wimbledon against Czech Karolina Pliskova (number 42). She also won the second major title of her career after her final victory in Hua Hin (WTA 250) in February against Chinese Zhu Lin, currently number 60 in the world.
Diana Shnaider won the first WTA 500 title of her career in Bad Homburg
Credit: Getty Images
In the first set on Saturday, the Russian was solid on her serve, saving nine break points, and only needed to break Vekic’s serve once (6-3). The Croatian right-hander, who turned 28 on Friday, finally found the opening on Shnaider’s serve at the start of the second set, which allowed her to take a 3-0 lead before leveling at one set each (6-2, in 34 minutes). Vekic seemed to continue her momentum by winning the first game of the deciding set but Shnaider hung on until 3-3 before making the difference, concluding on a final error at the net from her opponent.
The Croatian, who was aiming for a 5th title on Saturday, will face the Chinese Xiyu Wang, 51st in the world, in the first round of Wimbledon.
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