Tennis: Kasatkina captures first WTA title at Charleston
Daria Kasatkina beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1 to claim WTA title at Charleston.
MIAMI (AFP) - Russia s Daria Kasatkina came up trumps in her first WTA final on Sunday, breezing past fellow 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1 to claim a maiden title in Charleston.
"It s very difficult to describe my feeling now," Kasatkina said. "I feel I m just sleeping and everything is not real. I m so happy."
In the first all-teen WTA final since 2009, Kasatkina s consistency paid off. She belted just seven winners to her Latvian opponent s 25, but she also made just seven unforced errors to Ostapenko s 38.
They traded breaks early in the opening set, Ostapenko leveling the set at 3-3 before Kasatkina ruthlessly pulled away to win in just 66 minutes.
"Yesterday evening and all night I couldn t sleep," Kasatkina said. "I woke up during the whole night like two or three times. I was so nervous, you cannot imagine. I was feeling like, I want to just go on the court and everything let s finish, play. I cannot (stand) feeling this anymore. But now it was worth it."
The two players have a long history in the junior ranks, but had met just once before at the WTA level, when Ostapenko triumphed last year at Eastbourne.
The 42nd-ranked Kasatkina is now slated to return to the top 30 on Monday as she aims to return to Roland Garros as a seeded player for the second straight year.
Ostapenko, now 0-3 in finals after defeats in Quebec in 2015 and at Doha last year, will rise from 66th in the world back into the top 50.
But she will regret a final she called her "worst match" of a week that included victories over former world number one Caroline Wozniacki and Australian Open semi-finalists Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Kasatkina, whose victory underscores her rising-star status already established with two wins over world number one Angelique Kerber this year, became the sixth teenager to lift the Charleston trophy -- a list that also includes Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Sabine Lisicki.
