Kasatkina ousts Konta to make second straight Moscow final

MOSCOW, Russia -- No.6 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia thrilled her home country fans with a 6-4, 6-3 semifinal win over Johanna Konta of Great Britain at the VTB Kremlin Cup on Friday.

Kasatkina and Konta had split their two prior meetings, but it was the Russian who sailed to victory in the rubber match after one hour and 31 minutes of play, reaching her second straight VTB Kremlin Cup final in the process.

"It was pretty fast, so I’m happy that I didn’t lose so much energy in the semifinal, and I’m quite fresh before the final," said Kasatkina, after the match.

It was a high-quality affair by both players: Konta had 26 winners to 24 unforced errors, while Kasatkina had an even stronger ratio with 28 winners to only 20 unforced errors. It was Kasatkina who got more looks on her opponent's serve, holding 13 break points and converting four. Konta was only 2-for-9 on break opportunities. 

The Russian keeps alive her goal to go one better than she did last year, when she fell in the title match to Julia Goerges. By reaching the final, Kasatkina has also claimed an alternate spot at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

"Of course I love to play here in the Kremlin Cup in Moscow," Kasatkina continued. "I was just going on the court and enjoying every minute on the court."

World No.14 Kasatkina now will face Tunisian qualifier Ons Jabeur in the championship match. Jabeur's history-making week continued after the first semifinal, in which she defeated No.5-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to become the first player from Tunisia to make a WTA singles final.

"I can see that [Jabeur] likes this kind of surface and she likes to play here, so it’s going to be tough, of course," said Kasatkina, who won her only prior match against Jabeur in three challenging sets at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Konta tried to avoid the heavy Kasatkina forehand as much as she could in the early going, but was unsuccessful while serving at 2-1, where the Russian claimed a third break point of the game with a down-the-line winner off of that side, and then broke for 3-1 after a forehand miscue by the Brit.

Kasatkina held four set points on the Konta serve at 5-2, but the British player fended all of them off as she stayed steady with some scintillating backhand winners. Kasatkina faltered after losing those chances in the next game: after pulling back from 0-40 to deuce, the Russian then squandered that recovery by firing consecutive double faults to get broken.

Konta was now back on serve at 5-4, but Kasatkina regrouped, and garnered a fifth set point after a wide forehand by the Brit. Another wide groundstroke by Konta from that wing gave Kasatkina the pivotal break for the one-set lead.

Konta started the second set strongly, crushing a backhand winner to break Kasatkina at love in the first game. But Kasatkina immediately broke back in the following game, and started to dominate from there, clinching a second break of the British No.1 to lead 3-1.

At 5-2, Konta saved one match point en route to a service hold, but that only prolonged the inevitable. A nerveless Kasatkina closed out the match with a forehand winner on her second match point in the next game, sending herself and the Muscovite crowd into jubilation.