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Madison Keys withstood Daria Kasatkina’s valiant playmaking to clinch the Eastbourne International on Sunday. The American needed an hour and 42 minutes to pocket a 6-2, 7-6(13) win. En route to her win, Keys saved four set points in the tie-break and was thwarted from converting the win on her first four match points before she made good on the fifth championship point that came her way.
In the second set, after Kasatkina had made a comeback from 1-4 down in the set, she was able to break Keys in the 11th game and served for the set in the 12th. However, she didn’t even get to set point and dropped her serve which took the set into the tie-break.
Kasatkina put in 87% of her first serves to Keys’ 78%. However, she won only 52% of her first-serve points to Keys’ 70%. Both players struggled to do well on their second serve. Kasatkina won 33% of her second-serve points and Keys only fared slightly better, winning 35%.
Rothesay International: Madison Keys' now 3-0 in grass
Post-match, Keys shared, “I love coming and playing in Eastbourne. Being able to win the title here twice now makes me have very fond memories. If you told both of us two weeks ago that this is where I would be, we would not believe it.
It's been a pretty tough year for me... and being able to hold this trophy is absolutely amazing”. As Madison Keys pointed out, the 2023 Rothesay International’s the second the 28-year-old’s won in Eastbourne.
In 2014, she’d won the title in the British tournament for the first time in her career. It was also the first time she’d contested a WTA final in her career. Since then, Keys played one more final on grass, in Birmingham in 2016 and had won the title that year against Barbora Strycova.
In the last seven years, this is the first time she’d made it this far in a tournament played on grass. Meanwhile, Daria Kasatkina’s now lost both finals she’s played on grass, the 2021 final in Birmingham and now, in Eastbourne.