Daria Kasatkina has put her 2019 on standby
Daria Kasatkina had two good seasons. Both in 2017 and 2018 she won her first two WTA titles and set her first final in a Premier Mandatory. However, the 2019 season for the Russian was below expectations, with many eliminations in the first rounds of tournaments. Especially the first part of the year was particularly bad for her, as she failed to come up with her best tennis.
Despite the negative season Kasatkina managed to reach the quarter-finals at the China Open, the Premier Mandatory event in Beijing, where she was defeated by Caroline Wozniacki, at the end of a well-played match and a good tournament, played in a good technical and physical level. This good result should spur the Russian for the last tournaments of the season and the beginning of 2020, as her 2019 was lived in standby.
Kasatkina will have to rediscover the technical, physical and mental solidity that she showed in 2017 and 2018. In the last two years, we saw a very tenacious tennis player, with good technical and athletic means, to fight with relative constancy and good mental solidity. Here, these are the skills that haven't helped her tennis this season.
Some physical problems have also complicated her season, but in general, her performances have been below expectations and there has not been the qualitative leap waited from our insiders. She might also need something new in her team. Someone able to improve the aspects of her tennis that this season worked less, both physically, mentally and tactically.
Last aspect: the great competition that is now in the WTA Tour is both positive and negative for all the athletes. It can generate less pressure, but at the same time, it can raise expectations, and many champions are suffering this. Maybe even Kasatkina?
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2K5RDkn
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