Kasatkina, Samsonova complete dominant day for Russian tennis

Top seed Daria Kasatkina earned her second WTA singles title of the season in Canada on Saturday, but was forced to overcome a stern challenge from Australia's Daria Saville to do so.

Kasatkina, the world's ninth-ranked female player, came out on top after two close sets to defeat Saville by a score of 6-4 in each to claim the inaugural Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby after just under two hours of play, and after a thrilling 14-minute final game in which she won on her fifth championship point.

Her latest win comes less than three weeks after she defeated Shelby Rogers to win the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA title in San Jose - a win which re-established her position inside the world's top-ten ranked players.

The victory is Kasatkina's 37th of the season, a tally which trails her only behind Iga Swiatek, Simona Halep and Ons Jabeur on the winners' list this season. 

Meanwhile, Liudmila Samsonova added to what was already a buoyant day for Russian tennis when she defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich to win the Tennis in the Land championship in Cleveland, Ohio.

Samsonova made excellent use of her power game to win her second title in succession at the event, and did so in more dominant fashion than Kasatkina was able to muster, winning in straight sets over the seventh seed with a score of 6-1, 6-3. 

The win took just one hour and twelve minutes to complete.

Samsonova's triumph comes two weeks after another tournament win on hard courts at the Citi Open in Washington DC. 

Remarkably, her third-ever tournament win came without her dropping a set throughout the entire event.

“It’s unbelievable to win two titles in a row for me here in the United States, I didn’t expect it,”  Samsonova said afterwards.

“I like so much to play here because the surface is pretty fast, I love it. It was helping me in tough situations.”