Kasatkina beats Saville in Granby, wins second title of 2022

No.1 seed Daria Kasatkina worked her way to her second WTA singles title of the season at the inaugural Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby on Saturday, holding off No.9 seed Daria Saville 6-4, 6-4 in a hard-fought final.

World No.10 Kasatkina claimed her sixth career singles title overall by claiming two tight sets in a 1-hour and 53-minute clash with former Top 20 player Saville. Kasatkina is now 3-0 against 73rd-ranked Saville, who was playing her first final since her career-best season in 2017.

Fast facts: With the win, Kasatkina becomes the eighth player to win multiple singles titles this year, and the second player to pull off that feat today.

Kasatkina joins World No.1 Iga Swiatek (6), Caroline Garcia (3), Simona Halep, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Ons Jabeur, Bernarda Pera and Saturday's Cleveland champion Liudmila Samsonova (2 each) on that list.

Just like Samsonova, Kasatkina won her two 2022 titles in the first and last weeks of August. Kasatkina took home the San Jose crown at the start of this month, which propelled her back into the Top 10 of the WTA singles rankings.

Kasatkina has now won 37 matches this season, which is the fourth-most at tour-level, trailing only Swiatek (48), Halep (39), and Jabeur (38).

Key moments: Clever spins by Saville brought her back from a break down to on serve at 5-4 in the opening set. However, Kasatkina broke the Aussie for a third time in the following game, and the No.1 seed finished the first set with two more winners and five fewer unforced errors than Saville.

The second set went similarly as Saville once again fought back from a break down on two separate occasions. At 5-4, the pair tussled through numerous grueling rallies, with Saville chasing down everything Kasatkina threw at her in order to save four championship points.

However, the lengthy points took their toll on Saville, and Kasatkina eventually prevailed on her fifth championship point, wrapping up the engrossing 14-minute final game to take home another title.

Doubles final: The all-British duo of Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls claimed the Granby doubles title on Saturday evening with a 5-7, 6-3, [10-1] win over their compatriot Harriet Dart and Rosalie van der Hoek of the Netherlands.

The occasion marks the first WTA doubles title for both Barnett and Nicholls. The pair previously reached their first final earlier this season in Lyon.

Barnett and Nicholls shook off the loss of the first set and dominated the decisive match-tiebreak to triumph in the final after an hour and a half.