54 minutes and it’s over. Sensational defeat in the second round of the Australian Open

The weather conditions torpedoed the second day of competition at the Australian Open. For this reason, some matches of the first round have been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday. Magda Linette (45th WTA) had to wait longer for the opening match. Less fortunate was one of the TOP 10 players in the world ranking, Daria Kasatkina (8th WTA).

Daria Kasatkina said goodbye to the Australian Open. Huge disappointment

In the first match, the Russian competed with her compatriot, Varvara Graczewa (97th WTA). The match didn’t go as planned by Kasatkina from the beginning. The rival won the first four games and quickly developed a significant advantage. Although in the fifth game the higher-ranked Russian woman made up for the loss of one break, she could not do anything else. Gracheva recorded two more sets, winning 6:1.

Both players started the second set with winning service games. Since the score was 1:1, Graczewa returned to the game from the first batch and did not give her rival any chances. She won five consecutive games, recorded three breaks and won 6-1. The world’s 97th rocket needed only 54 minutes to eliminate the much more experienced Kasatkina.

The defeat of the eighth player in the WTA ranking is a huge surprise. Kasatkina was in the final of the tournament in Adelaide a few days earlier. She did not win the title, and in the match with Belinda Bencic (10th WTA) she won only … two games. Now the Russian has become the first world-class tennis player to be eliminated from the competition in Melbourne. And that’s in the first round.

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Advancement to the second round is Gracheva’s best result in the Australian Open. The Russian will fight for a place in the third round of the competition with the Italian Lucrezia Stefanini (141st WTA), who defeated the German Tatjana Maria (71st WTA) at the opening after a three-set battle.