Kasatkina survives Muguruza's stunning comeback at Madrid Open

Darya Kasatkina of Russia faced tremendous pressure from Garbine Muguruza and the Spanish crowd to come out winning at the Mutua Madrid Open 

Endurance was the key word to describe how the match went down at the Mutua Madrid Open Wednesday night. Another fight to the end from Garbine Muguruza pushed Darya Kasatkina to the brink only to lose 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Manolo Santana Court at La Caja Magica. The Russian gained her second win against the Spaniard this year against the Spaniard and the most deserved after a very dramatic match. The third set had a 12 break game that Muguruza won, but wasn’t enough to get her across the line for a second time.

Tuesday’s comeback late at night was a big response from the world number three preventing an exit early in Madrid. Her fourth meeting against the Russian has her with the lead including a victory that came three years ago on the clay. In her straight sets win at Marrakech, the Spaniard allowed Kasatkina five games before swiftly taking the opening round. Despite having less time to recover from her match win yesterday, Muguruza had her chance of getting another swift win on her terms.

The match began with the typical service holds form either player until a push from Muguruza extended the third game. Kasatkina was on defense from start to finish holding to deuce. She fought the Spaniard through five breaks and nearly nine minutes where double faults were becoming a big worry for her but got out of trouble containing the lead. The 21 year old almost had a break on the world number three, but saw the third seed rally back to deuce on serve. Muguruza held her end in the fourth to stay in motion with the pace.

Kasatkina didn’t want to follow any pace that her opponent could set up and forced one of her own holding in the fifth before capturing the break in the sixth. Despite committing a fifth double fault in the set, the 14^th seed had a 5-2 run on the Spaniard eager to put the set away. She did so on the break gaining two set points to cap a giant advantage going forward after 43 minutes. Muguruza had 20 errors in the span of eight games which is a notation to problems that had to be adjusted in order to pull off the same comeback made 24 hours ago.

After a long talk with coach Sam Sumyk during the set break, she rallied into the second set earning three break points but nearly dropped the serve. It was a tight race through the next few games but in the fifth, the Russian held before breaking the Spaniard for a 4-2 hold. Unwilling to let another lead by Kasatkina go unanswered, Muguruza pulled together a huge break that got her back within a game. The difficulty was playing every point against her due to such fast movements by the 21 year old.

The Spaniard figured out a way to deal with the adversity of Kasatkina, and perform well on serve in the eight to level back. Solid tennis from Muguruza earned her a shot at serving for the match making it difficult for Kasatkina to keep focus. During the break, she took a conference with Phillip Dehaes who told her to trust her serve and herself despite being behind for the first time in the match.

She put together a pattern to stretch out of her shots before going for the winners. She got back into the issues of unforced errors but somehow forced deuce in a much needed game. Three breaks were needed in the tenth that allowed Muguruza to attain the AD point and force her second consecutive three set match.

It was a 51 minute battle that gave the world number three new life but her efforts would determine on how long she could keep up the fight. The 21 year old nailed down her first serve followed by Muguruza who wanted nothing more than to stay on pace. Kasatkina wouldn’t allow her opponent to have that occur in the final set taking her serve to heart in the third. She followed that up with a break that beat down Muguruza; taking the home fans out of it as well. She reached 4-1 as all hope looked to be gone for the world number three who was running out of energy.

A conference with Sumyk came with the notion of what she was doing wrong having racked up nearly 50 errors in the match. When she tried to bring it together in the sixth, the Russian forced deuce to stay alive for the break. They went to six breaks where it became the longest game of the match with Muguruza gaining some confidence but not yet able to secure the hold. 12 breaks had elapsed in the game that lasted nearly 20 minutes where after 28 points, Muguruza captured the hold to play onward.

The energy put into that game took a lot out of Kasatkina who trailed on serve in the seventh to lose and bring Muguruza within a game. With Muguruza’s quality of serve back to a comfortable mark, the young Russian had a lot to work against after Dahaes came out during the break to trust her game and be aggressive. She won the eighth that took the crowd out for a moment breaking Muguruza. With service for the match in the hands of the 21 year old, she struggled with the second serve that handed Muguruza leverage on the score.

Kasatkina recovered the lost ground but got to deuce with Muguruza making a ball go long of the baseline. It was enough to give the 21 year old the chance to put focus on the rally before finding the open backhand of Muguruza’s landing the winner for AD point. Despite all the support running against her, the 14^th seed watched as the short rally ended with another return from the Spaniard landing long to end the match in 2 hours and 28 minutes.  

196 points were played in the match with Kasatkina winning 54 percent of them and maintaining a stronger first serve that got her across the finish line. With many good qualities coming from a hard fought battle, she moves to Thursdays quarterfinal meeting against Petra Kvitova.