Kasatkina's 'absolutely brilliant' lob earns hot-shot kudos at Wimbledon

No.14 seed Daria Kasatkina suffered a narrow defeat to Paula Badosa on Friday, but Kasatkina still pulled off some of her crafty magic in the nearly three-hour affair on No.3 Court, earning Wimbledon's plaudits as the top shot for Day 5.

Wimbledon 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of play

In the midst of a tense third set, Kasatkina withstood a barrage of big hitting from Badosa, reading the play and blocking back an inch-perfect defensive lob to steal a point from the Spaniard:

Despite the loss to Badosa, Kasatkina can still look back on a fruitful grass-court season. After finishing runner-up at three WTA 500 events earlier in the year, Kasatkina picked up her first title since 2022 by winning WTA 500 Eastbourne last week, which was also the first grass-court title of her career.

Kasatkina had matched her career-best tour-level winning streak of seven consecutive victories before falling to Badosa. Depending upon the remaining results this fortnight, Kasatkina still has a chance to return to the Top 10 after Wimbledon.

More from Wimbledon:

• 'A special place in my heart': Serena and Venus, Swiatek salute Andy Murray
• Home hope Raducanu storms past Sakkari into Wimbledon fourth round
• Is grass-court tennis the trickest surface on the tour?
  
• Familiar faces: Barty, Sharapova return to Wimbledon with their sons