Maiden slam semi for Dasha
Kasatkina has reached her first Grand Slam semi-final, posting a convincing win over 29th seed Veronika Kudermetova at Roland-Garros on Wednesday.
The 20th seed, who last reached a major quarter-final in 2018, continued her dominant run in Paris with a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
The former top-10 player was broken while serving for the victory at 5-4 and had to manage her nerves when Kudermetova took a lengthy medical timeout before Kasatkina was due to serve at 5-6.
Kasatkina raced to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak but things got tense as Kudermetova saved match points and cut her deficit to 5-6. But Kasatkina unleashed a deft drop shot out of nowhere to secure the win in two hours and eight minutes.
Kasatkina has now won 11 of her past 13 matches and has yet to drop a set this tournament after defeating her fellow 25-year-old for the second time in as many meetings.
The 25-year-old Kasatkina has lost to Swiatek three times already this season, winning a total of 11 games across all three, but the 20th seed is hopeful she can turn things around against her Polish opponent on Thursday.
