Kasatkina and Kenin through in Lyon

The Lyon crowd got to see some spectacular matches today. The day was kicked off with a match between Giorgi and Kasatkina. Both players have been playing very good in this tournament so far and both of them eyed the trophy. Only once could win this match and it was the Russian who started better. She won the 1st with 6-2 and looked rather comfortable on the court.

Giorgi a well-known fighter on the tour wasn't going to go down easily and she fought back to win the 2nd 6-4. She couldn't sustain that level in the 3rd which she once again lost 6-2. She had a lot of issues on her 2nd serve throughout the day and that lost her the match.

The 2nd match of the day was another banger and the Lyon crowd enjoyed this one as well. Kuzmova started the match pretty good which allowed her to win the 1st set 6-3. The 2nd one was a hard-fought battle but Friedsam managed to pull through and win it 7-6. She entered the last one motivated and completely dominated it. She would win it 6-2 and advance in Lyon.

Kuzmova's serve deteriorated as the match went on and in the last set, it became particularly bad. All of that proved key because when she served at a respectable level she was winning the match.

The 3rd match of the day was the shortest one the Lyon crowd got to see. It was, however, the match that drew the largest crowd in part due to Dodin being French and playing on home soil. It didn't help her much as Kenin came out with intensity Dodin couldn't match at all. She lost the set 6-1 simply because she was outplayed.

Dodin played a bit better in the 2nd set but she was against overmatched early by a better player. Kenin looked much better today than yesterday and it showed. She was cruising early with a 4-1 lead but Dodin fought back to make it 5-5. Sometime later we arrived in a tiebreak. Kenin took an early 5-1 lead but that was the last we saw of her as she lost six straight points to give Dodin the 7-6 2nd set victory.

The 3rd set started with a trade of brakes but it was evident Kenin was better. She would eventually break her opponent to take a 3-1 lead. She added another onto it and took a 5-1 lead. She would then proceed to finish the match with a convincing 6-2 3rd set victory.

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