Charleston Open: Kasatkina rallies past Keys and into semi-finals

Daria Kasatkina has never much enjoyed the matchup with Madison Keys, losing eight of their first nine meetings on tour. But the tenth meeting was a charm for the third-seeded Russian at the Credit One Charleston Open on Friday as she rallied from a set down to notch an impressive 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2 triumph.

Make it 1-0 on clay against Keys for Kasatkina, who will play Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the second seed, in the semi-finals on Saturday.

2017 Charleston champion Kasatkina improves to 14-2 lifetime on the green clay, and 8-8 on the season.

Kasatkina – My expectations were low against Keys

She earned 24 break points against Keys and converted ten breaks. Keys had 13 break opportunities and converted seven.

“To be honest, my expectations before the match were not high,” Kasatkina said. “Our head-to-head obviously is not on my side, but probably that actually helped me because I was there from the first point from the beginning – Mentally I was there.

“Madison, she’s tough for everyone. Not just for me if her game goes her way, it’s very difficult to stop her but I knew that on clay I would have more chances, because I’ve got more time and the bounces are higher and not perfect like on hard courts. 

“I’m really happy with the mental effort I’ve done after the first set, because it was a really tough one, we played almost an hour and 20 minutes and I had many chances to close the set.”

Earlier in the tournament, the Russian defeated American Madison Brengle (6-2, 6-1) and American Bernarda Pera (6-3, 7-6 (3)).

Keys, ranked No 22, won against wildcard Emma Navarro (6-4, 6-3), qualifier Hailey Baptiste (6-1, 6-2) and Pole Magda Linette, the No 8 seed (6-2, 3-6, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the Charleston tournament.

Charleston WTA 500, other quarter-finals results (Family Circle Tennis Center, clay, USD 780.637, most recent results first):

• Jessica Pegula vs. Paula Badosa
• Belinda Bencic vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Ons Jabeur beat Anna Kalinskaya: 6-0, 4-1 ret.