Daria Kasatkina achieves advancement in upsetting Belinda Bencic at French Open

Daria Kasatkina reaching with the backhand during her second-round match against Belinda Bencic at the French Open Wednesday. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Daria Kasatkina had all the right qualities of her game firing to advance her on at the French Open Wednesday. Taking it to Swiss star Belinda Bencic proved to be the key to victory as the Russian won in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 on Court Simone Mathieu at Roland Garros. 

The two met for the first time on the clay courts of France and the fifth overall. The Swiss star evened the series with the Russian last year at Adelaide, winning in straight sets. With her easy win in the first round two days ago, the tenth seed looked to keep up the pace against a stronger opponent and reach the third round for the second straight time. Kasatkina put in a lot of work to surpass Misaki Doi in three sets, overcoming a long second set against the Japanese player. As her second-round opponent became someone familiar with her own skills, the 23-year-old eyed another place back in the round of 32 since 2018. 

Bencic opened service with a comfortable hold against Kasatkina, who followed suit with one of her own. On a double fault in the third, Bencic got into a jam when she suddenly found herself fighting to hold serve at deuce. After three breaks, the Russian waited for her breakpoint chance and achieved the break for the lead. The 23-year-old consolidated to jump out to 3-1, but the Swiss weren’t out of the competition when she answered in the fifth, allowing Kasatkina just one point.  

The Russian left no room for her opponent to gain leverage for a break chance and stayed out front two games after six. She broke the tenth seed to love in the seventh, opening the door to take the set on serve. Though she was forced to deuce on an error from her end, Kasatkina relied on her second serve to force Bencic to err and close out the first in 35 minutes. Both did well with winners, but the unforced errors the tenth seed accumulated made the difference in her sitting behind. 

Bencic opened the second set with a comfortable hold, but once Kasatkina got the balls in her hands, she was on a roll. The Russian completed service in the second and caught a break as the Swiss ran head-first into frustrations. A warning for a time violation soon led to her demise that gave Kasatkina the break and a major change in pace. She went on to back up the lead in the fourth causing the tenth seed to express anger with her racket. 

Despite her fight to change the tide of control, Kasatkina had a breakpoint chance early and produced more to get to deuce and win it on her fourth of the game. The sixth was a sign of her shot to go up 5-1, but Bencic dug in to make it difficult for the Russian. After a few breaks of deuce, she landed her sixth ace to play for the match against the Swiss service. Bencic worked hard to keep her game from being broken and won it on deuce for her efforts. 

Kasatkina found her moment to shine on serve as she had not been broken all match and had the chance to put it away herself. With some big hits, she went from a 30-all situation to fire her seventh face for match point. An eighth one put the Swiss star away in 1 hour and 16 minutes, making the bottom half of the draw without a player in the top twenty.