Elise Mertens vs Daria Kasatkina: a victory for the Russian

World's No. 17 Elise Mertens will face the world No. 31 Daria Kasatkina in the 1/2 finals of the San Jose tennis tournament. The ladies have battled each other twice, in August 2017 where Elise won, and in April 2019 Kasatkina took revenge on the in Stuttgart.

For Elise, the grass court part of the season was hard. She has failed at the tournaments in Birmingham and in the third round at Wimbledon. Then the Belgian went to the Olympics in Tokyo, where she lost in the first round to the Russian Alexandrova. In San Jose, Elisa knocked out Mladenovic in three sets and Putintseva in two. That said, let's not forget that the Belgian is excellent playing in doubles. She had failed at the Olympics, but at Wimbledon Elise triumphed along with Xie Shuwei. It should be noted that at the tournament in San Jose Elisa performs exclusively in singles.

I tried to move gradually, from point to point, and stick to my tactics. I had to seize the initiative and make my opponent move around the court. I think I succeeded. I tried to minimize my unnecessary mistakes. All in all, I was a little bit better than yesterday and I was getting better courtroom skills.

Elise Mertens after the match against Putintseva

Daria Kasatkina played very well in the grass-courtpart of the season. However, the Russian refused to fly to Tokyo and spent the whole month preparing for the tournament in San Jose. So far Daria is doing well, two wins in two games, over Garcia and Linette in three sets both.

The match was hard. I think I played great - I was able to turn the tide in the second set. Garcia was serving really well and it wasn't easy for me. It was especially hard to get back in the game, so I'm just happy. I'm really proud of myself. Every tournament you want to go as far as you can, so the quarterfinals are good. I'm looking forward to the next match.

Daria Kasatkina after her victory over Garcia

Considering the line on the game, we think that Kasatkina is a bit underestimated. Yes, Mertens doesn't play a doubles match in San Jose, which is a plus for betting on the Belgian. But the Russian did not go to the Olympics and now she has to prove to herself and her environment that it was not done in vain. We offer the following betting variants: W2 for 2,41, Number of sets (2) for 1.50.