Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina is the latest talk of the town. After reaching the finals of the Eastbourne Open against Leylah Fernandez, the tennis fraternity can’t help but notice her incredible performance before Wimbledon. Along with her playstyle, Kasatkina’s latest coach has also gained similar attention, making fans intrigued and delighted about their fruitful partnership in just a year.

Daria Kasatkina unleashed her A game against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the Eastbourne Open yesterday and defeated her by 3-6, 7-5, and 6-3. She is prepping to face off against Canadian Leylah Fernandez today at the center court. Her amazing performance on the Wimbledon warm-up tour has brought attention to her coach Flavio Cipolla.

Kasatkina and Cipolla started working together in February 2023 after her partnership with Carlos Martinez ended. This Italian coach of Daria Kasatkina is a former ATP player and reached ATP rank 70 in 2012 on 23rd April. Cipolla was a right-handed player and replaced Martinez to bring a more instinctive playstyle to Daria Kasatkina’s game.

“We have a good connection,”- she said at a press conference in April. Speaking about “having fun on court and outside of the court”, Kasatkina mentioned how important it was for her to have a coach like Cipolla since she likes “not to be tense all of the time.” 

While this Russian WTA star is all praise about her new Italian coach, Cipolla also spoke highly of her in an interview with Ubi Tennis. Speaking about how his first assessment was “very positive” and “comfortable”, Cipolla further mentioned, “The girl is very nice and I like her very much, she is a great professional and also a hard worker. The job is simple in the sense that in everyday life it is very simple. So I’m happy. As a result, slowly things are getting better and better from the beginning. We hope to keep getting better and better. We have no results or ranking goals. We set ourselves mostly game goals, improvement goals.”

Over the past year, Daria Kasatkina and Flavio Cipolla’s partnership has been proven to be great. After reaching the Eastbourne Open finals, the tennis world seems to be really impressed by her playing style. Kasatkina’s latest victory not only brought her the joy of defeating higher-ranking players but also allowed her to enjoy playing on the court.

Daria Kasatkina was “really happy to play good and enjoy” her game on the court

Defeating WTA no 7 Jasmine Paolini to reach the finals, was truly an amazing achievement for Kasatkina. “It’s never easy to come to a tournament where you have to defend a lot of (ranking) points, but I’m really happy that I was able to play good and enjoy myself on court, always finding a way to come back in the match,”- said the Russian.

While Kasatkina mentioned that this victory “means a lot” to her. She is still cautious about her next opponent, Fernandez, in the finals. Noting that “grass suits Leylah very good,” this WTA no 14 acknowledged that Fernandez is “a very aggressive player, always trying to stay .” 

Kasatkina’s partnership with her new coach Flavio Cipolla has been going well to date. After Kasatkina mentioned enjoying her game, the tennis fraternity believes Cipolla has fine-tuned Kasatkina’s skills, helping her to perform well at the upcoming Wimbledon.