Guiomar Maristany vs Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva: Lisbon Final Analysis (ITF W75)
Jimenez Kasintseva won her biggest title to date with patient point build-up and winners to Maristany's forehand corner.
Persistent rain in Lisbon made a mess of the match schedule at ITF W75 Del Monte Belém Open. By Saturday morning only the first round had been completed, which meant finalists would be playing 4 matches in 2 days.
The sun finally shone over the weekend but Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (WTA #175) still had a couple more storms to face before the calm… and collecting the winner’s trophy.
First, Jimenez Kasintseva had to overcome a poor 0-6 0-3 start against Carole Monnet in the quarter-finals, finding a last-chance break at 0-6 4-5* that launched her to a comeback win.
Then came a nervy start to the final against Guiomar Maristany (WTA #206).
Maristany, conquerer of top-seed Arantxa Rus (WTA #84) in the quarters and looking to “move up” once again after starting 2024 with her first title above W25 level at ITF W50 Antalya, won 12 of the first 16 points while building a 3-0, double-break lead.
With 7 unforced errors in those first 3 games, Jimenez Kasintseva was down 0-3. Her record in 3 previous finals this season stood at 0-3. The sort of numbers that can dent anyone’s confidence.
But the Andorran settled down quickly and found her groundstrokes. Once that happened, winners began to flow. She hit 5 during a run of 10 consecutive points won that turned the first set around, then struck 9 winners during Maristany’s 4 serve games of the second set to grab 3 breaks.
After winning 12 of 15 games to close the match, Jimenez Kasintseva totalled 23 winners, 14 more than Maristany’s 9. This was the difference-maker that secured Jimenez Kasintseva a 5th career title and her biggest to date.
Jimenez Kasintseva is left-handed. She overloaded Maristany with slice serves targeting backhand returns and made good use of hooking, crosscourt forehands to force Maristany wide on the AD court. It was through patient point build-up that Jimenez Kasintseva ended up creating constant openings on the opposite side of the court for kill-shots. And when she went for them, she was utterly efficient.
By the end of the match, Jimenez Kasintseva had sent 15 of her 23 winners towards the forehand corner of Maristany on the Deuce side, as indicated by the yellow circle and grey arrow in the image below.
The following numbers attest how flawless Jimenez Kasintseva was when attacking Maristany’s forehand corner:
9 winning down-the-line forehand groundstrokes with a single unforced error (marked by blue box).
5 winning crosscourt backhand groundstrokes with just 1 unforced error (marked by blue box).
In one of the most remarkable stats from this match, only 1 of Jimenez Kasintseva’s 23 winners was hit within the first 4 shots! All other 22 winners were struck from the 5th rally shot onwards. Again, this shows how patient and efficient the Andorran was in building the point up.
Given this data, it was no surprise that Jimenez Kasintseva won the battle of medium and long rallies:
ended +4 in medium rallies (22-18).
won 20 of 27 long rallies played, for a 13-point advantage (20-7).
The combination of the above factors gave Jimenez Kasintseva a 49-35 edge in rallies played.
The 19-year-old was excellent when approaching the net, prevailing in 10 of 12 forward moves (83%). She was also the superior baseliner, winning 54% (39/72) of points from the back of court against 41% (34/83) by Maristany.
Guiomar Maristany (WTA #206) vs Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (WTA #175)
2024 Lisbon Final - Match Data
Set by Set Stats
Rally Length
Serve and Return
Winners and Errors (returns and rally shots)
Strokes Breakdown
1st Serves
2nd Serves
Return & rallying performance
Points won breakdown
This final section gives a last, broader look at the match by presenting how each player won points. Points are listed according to their frequency (highest to lowest) and are named in relation to the last touch on the ball. For simplicity, groundstrokes hit from the 5th shot onwards are grouped together.
Breakdown by side (FHs or BHs)
Breakdown by error type (UFEs or FEs)
To find out more about the stats published here, please visit the following post.
Even though they follow the same criteria used on all major tennis events, they are not official WTA or ITF stats. They are collected through our own rigorous video analysis.
Thanks for reading!
— Tennis Inside Numbers