With her second title of the season at the St. Petersburg Open, Daria Kasatkina leads the WTA in trophies won this year as the Russian continues to make up for lost time following a two-year title drought.
The 23-year old defeated Margarita Gasparyan in the St. Petersburg final to become the first Russian to lift the trophy, four weeks after she lifted the Phillip Island Trophy in Melbourne.
"I couldn't imagine I could do it, especially to win here in St. Petersburg, one of my favorite tournaments," Kasatkina said. "I always had a dream to win here and the trophy looks amazing. I'm a big fan of trophies. Feels great."
"This long trip started in Abu Dhabi. I left my home on January 2nd. It's been three months and I'm coming home with two titles. It's just great."
Following her victory, the former World No.10 has jumped back into the Top 50, as she now sits at No.42. Furthermore, the Russian has won 11 of her past 12 matches, and is one of the players to beat at the moment.
Kasatkina added that she surpassed even her own projection following the start of the season in Abu Dhabi, revealing she had no expectations in February.
"I was ready for the worst," she stated. "I was ready to lose every first round and go home feeling like a piece of nothing. I had no expectations, absolutely, because you never know. At the beginning of the season, with all these tough things, now it's different to travel with the restrictions. You don't know how you're going to react. Maybe you will be so stressed that you will not be able to compete at all. So those are the expectations, which makes everything that's going on now even better."
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As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
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