By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Wednesday, May 31, 2023
The tweener has become the go-to shot for players either hoping for a last minute miracle winner or at least to get the crowd on their side for at least trying.
Daria Kasatkina did both and provided the shot of the tournament so far at Roland Garros.
The ninth-seeded Kasatkina pulled off the incredible shot during the second set of her 6-3, 6-4 win over former 2019 finalist Marketa Vondrousova.
“I’m not going to lie; I was practicing this shot a lot,” Kasatkina said on court after the match. “When I was kid, I was maybe 10 years old, at home, practicing this shot against the wall. I was hitting the wall, lobbing and going for tweeners all the time. It would take me two hours every day.
“It’s not luck,” she added with a smile. “I was practicing this shot and finally it pays off!”
In her post-match press conference, the 26-year-old Kasatkina was asked what is the secret to hitting a great tweener.
“Don't think that you are going to hit a tweener, just hit it. Every time when I'm thinking about it, it goes anywhere, and today I was just going for, like, I was just running and not even thinking," Kasatkina said. :I even forgot the moment when it happened, so I was actually surprised.
"Yeah, I never expect to do it in the matches, to hit a tweener like that. So sometimes it's coming just from nowhere.”
Kasatkina, who reached the Roland Garros semifinals last year, is hoping for yet another solid run at the second major this season. She will next face rising American Peyton Stearns in the third round who upset former champion Jelena Ostapenko earlier in the day.
Photo credit: Roland Garros Facebook