Daria Kasatkina eliminated Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the very first round of the Ostrava Open as big names were bounced from the competition in the Czech city.
The fifth-seeded Kasatkina was making her first bow on the tennis courts since her first-round exit at the US Open at the hands of Harriot Dart of Great Britain. Despite early rust after the layoff, she managed to ease to a 7-5, 6-4 win.
The Russian broke Raducanu’s serve three times in the first set before rounding into form and dropping just eight points on serve in the second during the 1 hour and 31 minutes contest.
Kasatkina now leads Raducanu 1-0 in the pair’s head-to-head meetings after winning at the Ostrava Open. Crucially, world no.7 needs to do well in the tournament in order to seal her place in the WTA Finals.
While Kasatkina’s win felt routine, the second day of the competition in Ostrava was also filled with upsets with Alycia Parks stunning local hope Karolína Plíšková 6-0, 7-6.
The American qualifier dominated from the off, firing 15 winners to just 1 in the opening set while not facing a single break point during the 27-minute affair. She had to battle back from 3-1 down in the second stanza, reeling off 4 games in a row before eventually winning the contest in a tiebreak.
She will next take on Maria Sakkari of Greece in order to reach her first quarterfinal of the WTA Tour in what will be the pair’s first meeting.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich delivered another upset with her 6-2, 6-2 win over Jeļena Ostapenko. Her reward for the victory is a meeting with Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the next round.
