Kasatkina blown away at Wimby by old Russian teammate

Perth Now

10 hours ago

Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate.
The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier.
It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018.
But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair.
The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her.
Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener.
A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup.
When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love.
With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games.
The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter.