By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 13, 2022
Russia’s Daria Kasatkina notched her first Top-5 win since 2018, taking down Garbine Muguruza 6-4, 6-4 to book her spot in the Sydney semifinals.
Kasatkina improves to 3-3 against the World No.3 and 6-1 on the young season. She will face Spain’s Paula Badosa for a spot in the final on Friday in Sydney.
“I'm happy with my appearance today on the court,” Kasatkina said. “At the beginning I was maybe a bit overexcited, I wanted to do too much, but at the end I was able to control myself and took few good decisions and happy with the result.
“For sure it's gonna give me the confidence, because last thing she won was the WTA Finals. So, I mean, for sure she's playing very good tennis.”
The pair’s last four matches had gone three sets but on Thursday the 26th-ranked Russian served exceptionally, winning 27 of 35 first serve points and managed to get it done in straights.
Badosa toppled Belinda Bencic in three sets, while Barbora Krejcikova defeated Caroline Garcia 6-0, 6-2 and Anett Kontaveit advanced past Ons Jabeur when the Tunisian had to retire with a back injury after dropping the first set 6-4.
Here’s how the semis shape up at Sydney: