FORT WORTH, Texas—They call it a knockout draw for a reason: one strike and you’re out. Not so in the WTA Finals’ unique round-robin format, where group action plays out over three matches, win or lose.
Daria Kasatkina admitted took getting used to in press on Thursday.
“It was not easy, I must say,” she said after rallying to 1-1 in the Tracy Austin Group standings with a win over Coco Gauff, “because normally if you lost you’re just like, ‘Okay, the tournament is done. I pack my bags and I go to the airport.’ And here is completely different.”
Though Kasatkina appeared resolute in the wake of a deflating opening loss to top seed Iga Swiatek, the No. 8 seed, who has compared her internal monologue to a “hurricane,” had a more complex emotional reaction.
“I had to push myself to practice next day like nothing happened and prepare for the next match,” she explained, bemused. “Yeah, that was interesting. I felt unusual, let’s say, but pretty happy how I handled the situation which was quite new for me.”
Where Kasatkina had one loss to shake off, Gauff was fit to be tied after three straight defeats—two in doubles with Jessica Pegula. Fighting through tears in the opening set after losing a 4-1 lead, the American was ultimately overawed by Kasatkina, who improved to 3-0 against the teenager as Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd looked on.