Daria Kasatkina
Top seed Daria Kasatkina locks horns with Chinese youngster Qinwen Zheng in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Open on Friday.
Finalist at the 2023 Adelaide International 2, Daria Kasatkina has managed to reach the quarterfinals after defeating Jil Teichmann in the round of 16. Kasatkina received a bye into the second round.
After a disappointing campaign in the Australian Open, where the Russian star was ousted in the first round, Kasatkina has bounced back well in Abu Dhabi. She lost the first set in quick time against Teichmann. However, she didn’t get bogged down and went on to show her class in the following two sets. The match eventually ended 1-6, 6-0, 6-2 in favor of Kasatkina.
The Chinese No. 2 has already stunned a couple of established players this season. She has managed to reach the quarterfinals of a tournament for the first time in 2023.
In the round of 32, Zheng made light work of Rebecca Marino, defeating the Canadian qualifier in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. Zheng hit 10 aces in the encounter and had a win percentage of 89 on the first serve. In the second round, Zheng faced 5th seed Jelena Ostapenko. The first set was decided in the tiebreak which Zheng won. The 20-year-old was the better player by a fair distance in the second set as she won the match 7-6 (12-10), 6-1. In this match, Zheng once again smashed 10 aces.
The head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 0-0 as the two players will be facing each other for the first time on Friday.
Prediction: Daria Kasatkina to win in three sets.
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