WTA Elite Trophy: Kasatkina through to Zhuhai semis with win over Linette

Sixth seed Daria Kasatkina is through to the semi-finals of the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai after a second consecutive victory in the Azalea Group on Thursday.

The Russian defeated 11th seed Magda Linette 6-3, 6-4 in a battle lasting two hours and nine minutes, one day after her 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 win over top seed Barbora Krejcikova.

Kasatkina also played the tournament in 2018, where she failed to advance beyond the round-robin stage. With the Russian advancing to the semis, Krejcikova and Linette are now out of the tournament and cannot qualify for the last four.

Kasatkina hit 24 winners during the match, as compared to 21 for her Polish opponent but did not have things her own way. Linette fought back from 5-1 down in the first set and also led 2-0 in the second but Kasatkina proved too strong eventually and now improves to 3-2 lifetime against Linette.

This was also the first time since January that the Russian has claimed consecutive wins over top 25 opponents.

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