MOSCOW, Russia - No.2 seed Daria Kasatkina kicked off her Moscow River Cup 2018 campaign in emphatic fashion, dropping just two games against fellow Russian Anna Kalinskaya in her 6-1, 6-1 victory.

“I don’t think my start was that slow,” Kasatkina explained afterwards. “It was the first match of the tournament, so there were a few nerves, but it’s normal. Most importantly, I got my game going towards the middle of the first set.”

She added: “Switching from clay to hard is much easier than the other way round. To make the transition smoother I do a lot strength training, especially before grass and clay seasons.”

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Kasatkina came into the International-level clay event on the back of her career-best grass court season, which saw her reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. She also recorded a quarterfinal finish at Roland Garros, Madrid and Charleston earlier during the clay season.

That experience and confidence made the difference against the 19-year-old Kalinskaya, who has yet to win a WTA match in 2018. Kalinskaya was meekly broken to 15 in her opening service game, and she replied with a break straight back to level at 1-1.

But that was all the younger Russian could manage as Kasatkina’s heavy hitting game got going, with Kasatkina reeling off nine games in a row to zoom ahead in the opening set and start the second with a 4-0 lead. Kalinskaya once again managed one of the breaks back, but she couldn’t stem Kasatkina’s momentum as the No.2 seed took the match in just 54 minutes.

Kasatkina stayed solid and aggressive against Kalinskaya, striking 16 winners to 12 unforced errors against her opponent’s 10 and 19. As a result she was rewarded with 11 break chances - converting on seven of them.

Up next, Kasatkina will take on Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek in the second round. Like Kasatkina, Zidansek wasted no time making her way past her opening-round opponent, easing past on-the-rise German Antonia Lottner in straight sets yesterday, 6-3, 6-1.