French Open 2023: 'Best shot of the tournament so far!' - Daria Kasatkina's 'utterly outrageous' tweener

ByDan Quarrell

Updated 31/05/2023 at 13:53 GMT

Daria Kasatkina produced an "utterly outrageous" tweener in her second-round match at the 2023 French Open with it immediately lauded as the "best shot of the tournament so far". Kasatkina produced the magical showboat against Marketa Vondrousova in their encounter on Court Suzanne-Lenglen and saluted the cheering crowd with delight as they stood to applaud the wonderful effort.

Daria Kasatkina got the fans on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on their feet with a quite stunning tweener during her French Open second-round match on Wednesday afternoon.

The ninth seed was drawn to the net by a pretty solid drop shot from the Czech player, before she was immediately sent darting back behind the baseline with little hope of winning the point as Vondrousova advanced confidently to the net.

Somehow, to the crowd's disbelief, Kasatkina managed to whip a tweener cross-court with her bewildered opponent simply left to watch on in dismay as it flashed past her for a magical and unexpected winner.

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The wild winner, which gave her 40-30 on her serve at 3-2 down in the second set, having won the first, saw Kasatkina again defy her opponent en route to an impressive victory as she was able to advance.

Reacting to the incredible shot, Eurosport commentary duo Candy Reid and Abigail Johnson did not hide their delight and surprise.

"Ohhhh!" exclaimed Reid on commentary for Eurosport at the time.

"We’ve got the best shot of the tournament so far! There have been some contenders, but Daria Kasatkina puts herself as number one.

"She is brilliant at the through-the-legs, but this was arguably her best."

Johnson added: "Oh. My. Word. That was utterly outrageous.

"Not a poor combination from Vondrousova at all. That is out of this world. I don’t know if she could do that again if she tried!"

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Speaking in her on-court interview about the shot, Kasatkina admitted that it was something she had worked on, way back when she was a child.

"I’m not going to lie, I practised the shot a lot when I was a kid, maybe 10 years old," she said. "I was practising the shot against the wall.

"I would hit [the ball] against the wall, lobbing myself, going and playing a tweener all the time. It took two hours every day, so it’s not luck!

"I was practising the shot, and finally it paid off! I was trying to imitate Mary Pierce; she played an unbelievable shot here!"

That was 'absolutely not fun' says Kasatkina after 'very tough' match

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Stream the 2023 French Open live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com

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