Moscow: Russia’s Daria Kasatkina on Monday cruised into the second round of the Kremlin Cup, a joint WTA and ATP event, with a straight-set win over fellow teenager Belinda Bencic.
The 19-year-old, ranked 24th in the world and seeded eighth in Moscow, won 6-4, 6-1 to level her head-to-head record with her Swiss rival at 1-1.
Bencic broke early in the opening set but the local favourite, who is seeking her maiden title, broke back twice for a one-set lead in 38 minutes.
In the second Kasatkina underlined her domination on the hard court of Moscow’s Olympic indoor arena producing two more breaks to close out the match in just one hour.
“It was a very tough match and I’m really happy to win it,” Kasatkina said.
“At the very beginning I played too nervously.
“But after I was trailing I made some changes and began to play more aggressive tennis. Luckily it paid off.”
Earlier, Hungary’s ninth seed Timea Babos also advanced into the second round with a 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 7-5 win over Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in a replay of this year’s Florianopolis WTA final.
Babos, ranked 26th, broke twice to take the opening set, while Begu won the second in a tiebreak.
The opponents traded breaks throughout the deciding set but Babos, 23, was the more precise of the two and claimed the set and the match in two hours 27 minutes to record her first win over Begu in their third meeting.
“Today I tried to stay calm, to manage my nerves, to do what I could to win every single point and it worked well,” Babos told AFP.
“Begu knows my weaknesses well, while I know her weak spots. But at the end of tight matches like this tactics don’t really matter. It’s all about nerves. And today I was a bit better in this part of the game.”
In the ATP section, Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci cruised comfortably into the second round seeing off Turkish wild card Cem Ilkel 7-5, 6-1, while Czech Lukas Rosol ousted Austria’s Gerald Melzer 7-5, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Russian star Maria Sharapova has no plans of arriving in Moscow to watch the Kremlin Cup, Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) president Shamil Tarpishchev has said.
“No, she is staying in the United States and continues practicing there,” Tarpishchev said on Monday when asked whether Sharapova would come as a guest to the Kremlin Cup, reports Tass.
Sharapova, who is currently under suspension over anti-doping rules violations, has been allowed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to play at exhibition matches before her ban expires.
The tennis player has been serving a two-year suspension for the violation of anti-doping regulations since January 26. However, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on October 4 to reduce her suspension term from 24 to 15 months.
The Russian player is now eligible to officially return back to tennis courts starting April 26 next year.
In early March, Sharapova was first to announce that her doping tests revealed the presence of performance-enhancing drug Meldonium in the body system. Following the announcement, former World No. 1 was provisionally suspended from all tennis-related activities.
On June 9, Sharapova filed an appeal with the CAS in Switzerland’s Lausanne against her two-year suspension, which was officially announced on June 8 by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tribunal over anti-doping violations.
