Kudermetova and Kasatkina lead Russian charge in St. Petersburg
A hard-to-believe seven Russians are through to the quarter-finals of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. Romanian qualifier Jaqueline Cristian is the only non-Russian player in the last eight.
A record seven Russians will contest the quarter-finals of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy following victories for seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Daria Kasatkina on Thursday.
No 2 seed Kudermetova edged past Kamilla Rakhimova 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5), while eighth seed Kasatkina also needed three sets to see off Aliaksandra Sasnovich 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(2).
“Of course, I’m really happy about the win today,” Kudermetova commented. “I think Kamilla played really well today. She fought for every ball and it was a really tough match for me…. I had a little bit more experience, and in the tiebreak I really tried to play more aggressive than before. I think that was the key.”
Wild card Margarita Gasparyan held off Katerina Siniakova 6-4 6-4 and qualifier Anastasia Gasanova shocked fifth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(4).
They joined fellow Russians Vera Zvonareva, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last eight. Romanian qualifier Jaqueline Cristian is the only player outside of the host nation in the quarter-final lineup.
ANOTHER marathon duel in St. Petersburg
No.2 seed Veronika Kudermetova escapes qualifier Rakhimova to make the last eight!#FormulaTX pic.twitter.com/GudVco6BPH
— wta (@WTA) March 18, 2021
Record-setting Russians
The previous highest number of Russians in the same WTA quarter-final was six, set at Moscow 2005. In that tournament, Kuznetsova was joined by Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina, and Elena Likhovtseva.
The last time a single nation had as many as seven players at this stage of a WTA tournament was in Oakland in 1993, when the United States produced seven of the eight quarter-finalists.
