Dasha's playing tomorrow morning in Cinncinati. She drew Sonmez again, second time ever and second time this year. Dasha won in their last meet, 6-4 6-4. If she wins, she will likely face Anisimova, against whom she is 0-5. I am pushing for her. She tried so hard against Rybakina!! Friend Kamilla plays Dasha's fellow Australian Birrell at the same time. (Times in US MT).
Oh man what a match.
Dasha started down 0-3. She looked lost, lacked firepower, not running down balls. She wasn’t retrieving well. Wang was making her twist and turn. Dasha gave up the first set badly like she's done many times this year. Eventually Wang was winning 6-1, 4-1, having won 10 of the first 12 sets. It looked all over for Dasha.
Then she won 7 straight points. Wang had a lot of unforced errors. Dasha took 17 of 22 points and won 4 games in a row to get to 6-1, 4-5!! She began capitalizing hard off Wang's errors. When down 6-1, 6-5, it looked like Wang was going to end Dasha's comeback, but then Dasha won a game cleanly 4-0. Dasha would just not go down. She was the one now making Wang twist and turn. Wang took a nasty fall.
In the end, Dasha was victorious, a match that was 2 hours 23 minutes. She didn't seem to know Rybakina was up next. Dasha scored another victory this year against a top-40 player (according to live rankings). She's won more than she lost in this "recovery" year.
Natasha was there :) Coach was there too, but wasn't very useful. The full match is on VK.