Daria Saville has fallen short in her quest for a second career singles title on the WTA Tour, going down to top seed Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the inaugural WTA 250 Championnats Banqu Nationale de Granby Open.
Saville, who was competing in her first final in four years has risen more than 300 places in the WTA Rankings after overcoming many injury forced layoffs.
The 28 year old Aussie did not get off to an ideal start, losing her opening game on serve. However, her fighting spirit was on full display as she broke Kasatkina’s serve when she was serving for the set. Unfortunately, Saville was immediately broken in the very next game to gift the No. 1 seed the first set.
The second set followed an almost identical script to the first set. Saville went an early break of serve down and managed to get the set back on serve only to hand her very next service game to Kasatkina. From there, the Russian was able to close out the set to win her second title of the WTA season.
Kasatkina has rise back to a career-high WTA ranking of world No. 9 while Saville has elevated fifteen spots to No. 58 in the WTA rankings.
Both women will turn their attention to the US Open where Saville will be playing Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the opening round and Kasatkina will come up against Harriet Dart.
Samsonova Claims Back-to-Back Titles
Liudmila Samsonova has continued her hot form, winning her second straight title, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-3 in the final of the WTA 250 Tennis in the Land presented by Motorola Edge, in Cleveland.
Samsonova extended her winning streak to 10 after winning the City Open in early August and is now 3-0 in finals on the WTA Tour.
After losing her opening service game of the match, Samsonova reeled off the next five games to take control of the set.
In the second set, Samsonova broke Sasnovich’s serve in the fourth game of the set to race to a 4-1 lead. Samsonova was able to hold her nerve and claim her third career title on the WTA Tour.
Post-match, Samsonova was delighted to continue her strong form.
"It’s unbelievable to win two titles in a row for me here in the United States, I didn’t expect it," Samsonova said. "I like so much to play here because the surface is pretty fast, I love it. It was helping me in tough situations."
Samsonova will play Czech Sara Bejlek in the opening round of the US Open.
In the doubles, Australian Ellen Perez and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez claimed their first title together, defeating Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic 7-5, 6-3 in the final.
Perez and Melichar-Martinez have now played in three straight finals together after reaching back-to-back WTA 1000 finals in Toronto and Cincinnati, having won 12 of their 14 matches.
The pair will now look to continue their career-best form at the US Open.
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