No. 1 seed Daria Kasatkina made light work of Hailey Baptiste as she claimed a routine 6-4 6-2 win over the 105th-ranked American to set up a Seoul quarterfinal against Emma Raducanu.
After blowing an early first-set break, the Russian tennis star claimed breaks in the third and seventh games for a comfortable 5-2 lead. Although the world No. 13 didn't manage to serve out for the set in the eighth game, it was no issue since she was able to do so two games later.
Up by a set, Kasatkina had no problems closing out the match as she broke Baptiste three times in the second set en route to completing a two-set win in an hour and 17 minutes of play.
In both sets, the Russian lost her serve once but she created a total of 12 break points during the match and converted six of those.
Can Raducanu get her revenge against Kasatkina in Seoul?
When the 21-year-old Briton and the top seed meet at the Korea Open, it will be their third meeting. Previously, the Russian won 7-5 6-4 on the hard courts of Ostrava in 2022 before also destroying the 2021 US Open champion 6-2 6-2 in Eastbourne in June.
Considering how well Raducanu was playing at the start of the grass season and that she was coming off a Nottingham semifinal showing, many had her as the favorite against Kasatkina in their Eastbourne quarterfinal meeting.
But after the home favorite hit 17 winners against 29 unforced errors and played poorly throughout the match, it ended up in demolition. Later, she described it as "one of the worst conditions" she had played in.
"Yeah, I wasn't tired at all. I was feeling really good. I think I just dealt with the circumstances badly. Yeah, was very inflexible in my approach. Like, that's my honest reflection of the match. But physically I'm in a really good spot, and yeah, I could easily go and train now or train tomorrow. Like, I'm fine," the 21-year-old said after the Eastbourne exit.
It will be interesting to see if Raducanu can get her first win over Kasatkina in Seoul and reach her second semifinal at the tournament.
