Daria Kasatkina gets by Marie Bouzkova 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the final in Melbourne on Friday. The battle lasted 2 hours and 8 minutes. This is the first time that Darya conquered this tournament. She has never played this tournament so far.
Kasatkina added $ 7,650 to her prize money after winning this final. She has earned $ 28,500 in total after conquering this tournament.
Kasatkina was elated about the match. She was struggling with her results in the last 2 years and she didn;t win a title since October 2018. She commented:
“It took a lot of time to rebuild my game, to rebuild my confidence, to change myself. Finally I’m feeling good. I was working with a psychologist a lot. I learned that your confidence shouldn’t depend on your results.
To lose one match doesn’t have to kill yourself from inside, so… I think that was the main thing.”
Highlights Daria Kasatkina vs. Marie Bouzkova Phillip Island Trophy – Melbourne
Stats: aces, double faults, breaks, winners
2h:08
At the end of the match, the Russian scored 89 points vs. the Czech’s 66.
Kasatkina
Kasatkina served very well to win 75% of the points (36/48) behind her first serve. Nevertheless she won only 38% points (8/21) on her second serve. The Russian won this match even if she was not so effective in converting her break points as she converted only 47% (7/15) of the procured opportunities.
Bouzkova
On the other side, Marie was pretty focused in converting 67% of the break points that she conquered points (4/6). Anyhow, that was not enough to win the match.
After this match, the head to head between Kasatkina and Bouzkova is 2-0 for Darya.
This was the 3rd career title for Darya. She won the previous titles in Moscow.
The Russian was great in turning the match in the last 2 sets after losing the opener. In fact, she conceded only 4 games in the last 2 sets after winning 56 points vs. ‘s 33 points.
Live score progression and stats
Kasatkina had a racing start in this set after breaking in the 1st game (1-0). Nevertheless, the Czech refused to bow to come back to break Darya 3 times in the 2nd (1-1), in the 4th (3-1) gamein the 10th game before winning the set (6-4) after breaking his opponent in the last game.
The Czech converted 60% of her break points (3/5). She had 5 break points opportunities in the 2nd (0-1 15-40), the 4th (2-1 30-40), the 8th (4-3 30-40 and 40-A) and the 10th game (5-4 0-40). Moreover, on the other side, Darya converted 33% of her break points (2/6). She had her opportunities in the 1st (0-0 0-40, 15-40, 30-40 and 40-A), the 5th (1-3 15-40) and the 9th game (4-4 30-40).
They played 64 points. Bouzkova conquered the set after winning 6 points more than the Russian (35-29). Bouzkova surrendered 15 points on serve (18-15). In addition, on the other side, Kasatkina conceded 17 points on serve (14-17).
The Russian in this set stepped up in great fashion to overplay Marie and without too much struggle she won 6-2 after breaking Bouzkova 3 times in the 5th (3-2), in the 6th (4-2) and in the 7th (5-2) game.
Bouzkova was completely knocked out in the last 5 games of the set when the score went from 1-2 to 6-2.
Darya was extremely solid on serve to concede just 4 points (13-4). On the losing side, the Czech conceded 13 points on serve (10-13).
Kasatkina came out strong at the beginning of the set after breaking in the 2nd game (2-0) before consolidating her break and lead 3-0. However, there was more work to do for Kasatkina to win the set because Marie succeeded in breaking back in the 4th (1-3) game. Darya maintained her cool to break Bouzkova in the 5th (4-1) game before conquering the set (6-2).
Darya dropped 5 points on serve (14-5). On the losing side, Marie conceded 14 points on serve (14-14).
