Kasatkina v Ostapenko for Charleston title
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| SA upbeat ahead of Slovenia clash |
Daria Kasatkina and Jelena Ostapenko will both be
battling for a first WTA title when they meet in the final at
Charleston on Sunday.
Latvia's Ostapenko outlasted 11th-seeded Croatian
veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, while Russia's Kasatkina
rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Germany's Laura Siegemund.
"It's nice. Finally I made the final," Kasatkina
said. "Don't know what will happen tomorrow. Never have been in the
final. So we will see."
After dropping the
opening set, Kasatkina dominated
the rest of the match, reeling off one run of nine games before
converting her fourth match point after two hours and 20 minutes.
Siegemund took a medical timeout in the third set
for treatment on her right thigh and said a pair of lengthy matches took
a toll on her.
"I just couldn't move anymore. The week is a long
week, and I'm a really fit player but she just started giving me no pace
at all," Siegemund said. "I just started to miss here and there like
this, my serve started to go down. Very frustrating for me because I was
playing really well and it was like someone unplugging my energy."
Ostapenko, who ousted former world number one
Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, will be playing in her third
career singles final, having lost in the title matches at Quebec in 2015
and at Doha last year.
Ostapenko survived eight double faults, but converted seven of her 13 break point chances against Lucic-Baroni.
Ostapenko, who like Kasatkina is 19 years old, had
to conquer her own emotions to get past Lucic-Baroni after failing to
take advantage of her chance to serve out the match in the second set.
Lucic-Baroni produced a welter of winners to break Ostapenko for 5-4 and held on to force the third set.
"I actually was quite emotional in the second set
when I was 5-3 up and I couldn't finish the set, but she liked when I
was emotional," Ostapenko said. "It kind of gave her confidence till
then.
"In the third set I was just trying to be calm
because I think it was tougher for her because I didn't show any
emotions, and it helped me, so I won the third set."
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