Kasatkina Wins All-Teen WTA Final Over Ostapenko

It was the first all-teen final in eight years on the WTA tour and a glimpse of the future.
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Daria Kasatkina won her first career WTA title on Sunday, defeating Jelena Ostapenko, 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the Volvo Car Open.

“It’s very difficult to describe my feeling now,” Kasatkina said. “I feel I’m just sleeping and everything is not real. I’m so happy. Really.”

The first set was a back-and-forth affair until Kasatkina broke to take the first. The second set wasn’t that close as Ostapenko came unraveled.

After the collapse she fell to 0-3 in career finals.

Kasatkina over the week defeated Monica Puig, pal Daria Gavrilova, No. 10 seed Irina-Camelia Begu, and in the semifinals Laura Siegemund.

“Yesterday evening and all night I couldn’t sleep. I woke up during the whole night like two or three times. I was so nervous, you cannot imagine. I was feeling like, I want to just go on the court and everything let’s finish, play. I cannot feeling this anymore. But now it was worth it.”

Kasatkina had seven unforced errors to Ostapenko’s 38.

“Today, the tactic was to be a little bit more defensive, go back, spin, slice the ball because it’s clay, and she’s playing really aggressive,” Kasatkina said. “So we decided that I have to go back and make her tired. It was a good tactic, I think.”

Kasatkina is now 1-0 in career finals, while Ostapenka remains winless in three.

Ostapenko will return to the Top 50 after during the week toppling former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and Australian Open semifinalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

“I was playing good all the days this week,” Ostapenko said. “Today was really not my day, and I just didn’t feel the ball that well. I was missing too much, and because she was defending during the whole match. It was just probably not my day.”