Daria Kasatkina crushes Polina Kudermetova without dropping a game in Doha

A 100% Russian duel in the first round of the Doha Masters 1000. Following the withdrawal of Anastasia Potapova, who had just won a title at the Cluj-Napoca tournament, Polina Kudermetova was drawn into the main draw.

Beaten in the last round of qualifying by Alycia Parks, the finalist at the Brisbane tournament at the start of the season was up against Daria Kasatkina for a rematch of the start of the season (Kudermetova had beaten her opponent of the day in Brisbane).

The number 10 seed in Qatar thus opened the second day's program in the women's draw on center court.

Kasatkina, who was eliminated by Ashlyn Krueger in her opening match last week in Abu Dhabi, was keen to reassure herself against one of her compatriots.

The 27-year-old didn't do things by halves in this match and, after just 41 minutes, Kasatkina won without conceding a single game (6-0, 6-0), saving the two break points she had to save today.

Last week, Polina Kudermetova's elder sister Veronika suffered the same fate against Belinda Bencic in Abu Dhabi.

"Throughout the match, I thought about the scenario of the match a month ago. I know exactly what happened that day.

I really tried to stay focused. In tennis, it doesn't take much for a match to change completely. It's windy here, so conditions aren't easy," said Kasatkina after her success.

She will now take on Elina Avanesyan, ranked 48th in the world and who defeated Wang Xinyu this Sunday in three sets, for a place in the last 16.