Australia’s lukewarm challenge at a boiling French Open is over after Daria Kasatkina was beaten 6-0, 7-5 by the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka.
Kasatkina became the last of Australia’s 13 singles contenders to bite the red dust before the end of the first week, a battling fightback almost inevitably denied by Sabalenka, who will face Naomi Osaka in the last 16.
Along with the boilovers created by Adam Walton and Kim Birrell and one improbable comeback win by the luckless Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kasatkina’s resurgence after a troubled year has been one of the bonuses of a tough Aussie week at Roland Garros.
She made it to Saturday as the last Australian standing at the French Open for the second successive year, after Alex de Minaur’s desperately disappointing four-set capitulation to Jakub Mensik, also in the third round, the day earlier.
But an outing against the four-time grand slam champion Sabalenka on Court Suzanne-Lenglen always looked to be a fight too far for the country’s most high-profile tennis import as Kasatkina battled in vain before falling 6-0 7-5.
On the last day of the seven-day European heatwave – with temperatures forecast to drop significantly on Sunday – Kasatkina had promised to take the fight to the Belarusian but Sabalenka, who went in holding a 7-2 head-to-head advantage, began with the sort of searing form that matched the weather.
The last time they’d met at Roland Garros six years ago, when Kasatkina was competing as a Russian, the match had ended with Sabalenka whitewashing her friendly foe with a 6-0 set. She began as if they’d just left off, seemingly hammering winners at will – 16 in the first set that ended in a familiar scoreline.
Kasatkina simply couldn’t cope with her opponent’s irresistible power and accuracy on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, but Sabalenka had expected a fight from a clever all-court player she had described as “amazing”. She got one in the second stanza, the world No 53 breaking the Sabalenka serve to move into a 2-0 lead.
It was fleeting, though, as the four-times grand slam champion immediately hit back and then held the initiative, only for Kasatkina to use all her wiles to stay in the hunt. At 5-5, she looked to have a glimmer of a chance at 0-30 when her loopy forehand returns caused some concern for last year’s beaten finalist.
Sabalenka regrouped, and then got lucky at the start of the fateful final game. The top seed got a net cord that plopped over stone dead, and then Kasatkina double-faulted, paving the way for Sabalenka to smash a 37th winner en route to a 76-minute win, her 100th as a world No 1, and a blockbuster meeting with Osaka.
