Classy Kasatkina cruises into Charleston quarters

CHARLESTON, SC, USA - No.3 seed Daria Kasatkina extended both her winning streak at the Volvo Car Open and her dominance over No.13 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, defeating the Romanian 6-2, 6-1 for the sixth time in seven meetings to notch up her eighth straight victory in Charleston.

The one-hour, three-minute triumph was a reprise of last year's quarterfinal match between the erstwhile doubles partners, which Kasatkina took 6-4, 6-1 before going on to lift her maiden WTA trophy.

Having struggled to quell Christina McHale over three sets in the previous round, the World No.12, embarking on the brand new experience of defending a title, explained the pressure she felt.

"It's really awkward to turn your head everywhere and your face is around," Kasatkina said of the tournament posters featuring her. "It's very nice, but at the same time it puts a little bit of pressure on you because everybody is asking you if I saw this big picture on the stadium. Like, I think everybody saw it in the city."

Admitting to feeling "stressed" in her previous round, Kasatkina stated that her mental state had improved somewhat. "Today was much better than two days ago," she smiled. "I think I was almost flying, and I'm really happy about it because I was really stretched the first match, but I hope this pressure disappears."

The Russian has been in fine form in 2018, with back-to-back finals in Dubai and Indian Wells taking her to the brink of the Top 10, and her all-court mastery was on full display in a 37-minute opening set. Scampering to every corner of the court, Kasatkina was implacable on defence, conjuring up several remarkable gets and pinpoint lobs. Begu valiantly persisted with her aggressive plays, but all too frequently was unable to finish them off, committing 26 unforced errors over the course of the match.

The defending champion wasn't just limited to retrieval, though. Varying her tactics and working the angles, Kasatkina was capable of switching her play up by going for big returns and swarming the net - with her reflex volley followed by exquisite touch putaway in the fifth game a particular highlight.

She was aided, too, by her opponent's struggles on serve. Begu, who would win just 29% of her second serve points over the course of the match, was unfortunately prone to bouts of ill-timed double faults: one on the first break point she faced, two more to get broken to love again in the fourth game.

Though the Romanian managed to briefly assert herself on the match at the start of the second set, nailing winners on the return and the drive volley to break Kasatkina to love, it was to be a final hurrah. 

The Indian Wells runner-up went from strength to strength as the match progressed: the second set found her wheeling out her trademark crowd-pleasing jumping backhand on several occasions and reducing her unforced error count to a meagre three over the entire set. 

Changing the direction of the ball seemingly at will, Kasatkina reeled off the final six games of the match, breaking Begu three more times, without facing another game point - and appropriately enough, she would seal a place in her fourth quarterfinal of 2018 with another canny dropshot.

In the last eight, the 20-year-old will face a familiar foe in No.5 seed Julia Goerges, to whom she has lost three of their five encounters - including straight-sets losses in their last two matches, both on Kasatkina's home soil in Moscow.

The German had praised her young rival both as a player and a person after her match, and Kasatkina repaid the compliments. "I [lost] the match," she recalled of their first encounter in Bucharest in 2015. "But during our handshake she told me a few very kind and inspired words. So... after this I was really surprised because she was so kind to me, and she's one of the first players I get in touch with, and we are still really good."

Not that Kasatkina expects Goerges' friendliness to extend to her play. "I don't think she will just give me the match because we are friends," she laughed. "She's a really tough opponent because she's very aggressive, she's serving well. She has
very aggressive forehand, very solid backhand. So to beat her for sure I have to show something special and to play not like go on court just to play."