The 18-year-old Noskova came through a tough qualifying draw
in which she beat world No. 58 Anna Kalinskaya and No. 43 Anastasia Potapova
before achieving the biggest win of her career over third-seeded Kasatkina.
The 102-ranked Noskova is competing in only her fifth main
draw on the WTA Tour and had never played, let alone beaten, a top-10 player.
She had been 0-2 against top-20 opponents.
Her best win before Monday had been over 38th-ranked Alizé
Cornet in the second round en route to the semifinals in Prague last July.
Noskova took the first set comfortably in 46 minutes and
broke to lead 4-3 in the second before Kasatkina broke back. She served for the
match at 6-5 in but Kasatkina again fought back to take the set in a
tiebreaker.
But the Czech revived to win the deciding set and the match
in just over 2-1/2 hours, finishing with a sweeping cross-court forehand on
match point. She broke Kasatkina’s serve eight times overall, hit 57 winners
off the ground and won 21 of the 24 points when she came to net.
Kasatkina had an eventful 2022 season during which she broke
back into the top 10. She also came out as gay and openly denounced Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine.
Noskova reached a ranking high of 87 in 2022 and qualified
for the main draws at the French and U.S. Opens.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs but I think it was a
really good season,” Noskova said. “I started around 300, I think, and then
around 100 now, so it’s a pretty good progress.
“Obviously I need to pick it up a little bit to get back
into the (top) 100 but hopefully I’m going to achieve it this year.”
Noskova now will face the winner of the match between
Australia’s Priscilla Hon and American qualifier Claire Liu.
Later, fourth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia beat
Amanda Anisimova of the United States 6-3, 6-0.
On the men’s side, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan upset
fifth-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. -AP