Daria Kasatkina captured her first title of the season at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, coming back to defeat No.45 Shelby Rogers 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-2 in Sunday's final. When the WTA rankings are updated on Monday, the 25-year-old will return to the Top 10 for the first time since 2019.

A finalist last year, Kasatkina was the first player to reach back-to-back finals in San Jose since Serena Williams won back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012. San Jose is Kasatkina's fifth career title on the Hologic WTA Tour and first since winning 2021 St. Petersburg. Her victory over Rogers in the final is her 200th main draw win on the WTA Tour.

Kasatkina feeling free and happy after coming out 

With their head-to-head tied at 1-1, the final pitted Rogers' powerful baseline game and dominating serve against Kasatkina's physicality and all-court guile. Kasatkina broke open the match early to build a 5-3 lead but could not serve out the set. Rogers elevated her game by improving her baseline discipline, saving a set point before racing away with the tiebreak after a grueling 78-minute set. 

But the effort expended to take the opener would prove too difficult for Rogers to overcome. Rogers had not come close to losing a set in San Jose, rolling through her matches all week thanks to her pristine serving. In contrast, Kasatkina had put in the miles throughout the week, coming back from a set down twice to defeat Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 1-6, 6-2, 6-0, and No.6 Aryna Sabalenka, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0.

Kasatkina's focus and physicality would ultimately make the difference. As she had done to Rybakina and Sabalenka, Kasatkina coolly turned the match around in the second set by exploiting Rogers's dip in energy. From 1-1 in the second set, Kasatkina won the next seven games to win the second set 6-1 and build a 2-0 lead in the third. She finally closed out the match after 2 hours and 32 minutes.

Match stats: To win the opening set, Rogers hit 15 winners to 19 unforced errors, while Kasatkina hit eight winners and 19 unforced errors. Kasatkina kept things much cleaner in the second two sets, hitting just 13 unforced errors while holding Rogers to just 12 winners for the remainder of the match. Kasatkina finished the match with 24 winners to 32 unforced errors. Rogers hit 27 winners to 39 unforced errors.

In the midst of one of her finest seasons, Kasatkina's victory snapped a two-match losing streak in finals. Having made back-to-back semifinals on the clay in Rome and Roland Garros, Kasatkina's outstanding week in San Jose included two Top 10 wins over No.4 Paula Badosa and Sabalenka, and a victory over the reigning Wimbledon champion. She is now tied for third on tour in wins this season with 32, behind only No.1 Iga Swiatek and Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur.