WTA125 Makarska: Sara Bejlek vs Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva final analysis

The calm after the storm

The clash of 19-year old lefties that decided the Makarska Open champion was hardly competitive. Sara Bejlek (WTA #188) won the first 8 games of the match and conceded a single game to Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (WTA #146) on her way to a second career WTA 125 title. She had previously triumphed at Colina in 2023.

source: Makarska Open

The relatively easy, 56-minute final was a welcome change for Bejlek, who needed all of her survival skills to get there.

Facing higher-ranked opponents all week, the Czech teenager was forced to recover from a set down in the first two rounds, against Leyre Romero Gormaz (WTA #150) and veteran Petra Martic (WTA #116).

Then Bejlek met 4-seed Mayar Sherif (WTA #84) — the WTA 125 record holder with 8 titles, including one at Parma just a month ago — in the quarters and scored an impressive 6-2, 6-4 victory.

The following match offered an even tougher challenge, in the form of top seed and recent WTA 250 Rabat champion Maya Joint (WTA #53). Bejlek lost the opening set yet again and this time she also fell behind in the second set.

At 2-6 3-5, the Czech was forced to save these 2 match points on serve…

📺 source: WTA Unlocked

… and a game later, she saved 4 more!

While it is undeniable that Joint lend an assistance, Bejlek earned her luck by scrapping and sliding all over the court. And with momentum on her side, she completed a miraculous 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 escape to reach her first final of the season in Makarska.

Match analysis

Bejlek enjoyed her best start of the week in the championship match, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead with some imposing forehands.

Very energetic, active and assertive from the back, Bejlek ruled baseline exchanges from start to finish. Something that wore down Jimenez Kasintseva’s confidence, particularly in her forehand.

As the match progressed, the Andorran accumulated return errors at an alarming rate — a total of 11 by the end — and also made a number of mistakes on “serve+1s” (i.e. on her first shot after serving).

These misses combined to give Bejlek a significant 17-point advantage in short rallies (27 to 10).

The final gap between forehand performances was actually even bigger, at 19 points.

Bejlek ended with a neutral differential after matching 15 forehand errors with 15 winning shots from that wing, distributed between 7 winners and 8 forcing shots.

Jimenez Kasintseva performed a few notches below, finishing at -19 after rebutting 27 forehand errors (12 more than Bejlek) with just 8 winning forehands.

Forehand Performances

• Bejlek: 7 winners + 8 forcing / 15 errors = 0

• Jimenez Kasintseva: 5 winners + 3 forcing / 27 errors = -19

Forehand point-winning (court on the left for each player) and point-losing shots (court on the right for each player). Ball direction is from bottom to top.

Curiously, the Makarska final ended on back-to-back unforced errors from Jimenez Kasintseva, but leaked from the backhand side. The Andorran went the whole match without creating a single game point on serve, highlighting how uninspired she was in all elements of the game.

Overall, Bejlek held 19 game point opportunities against only 2 for Jimenez Kasintseva. A huge difference that evidences the magnitude of Bejlek’s superiority on the day.

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Sara Bejlek (WTA #188) vs Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (WTA #146)

2025 Makarska final - Match Data

Set by Set Stats

Strategy Stats

Strokes Breakdown

Our strokes scores offer an alternative look. They are calculated according to: Winner +1; Forcing Shot +0.5; Unforced Error -1; Forced Error -0.5

Winners and Errors (returns & rally shots)

Direction of winning shots and unforced errors (only groundstrokes)

Intended direction of groundstroke winning shots (= winners+forcing shots) and unforced errors. Returns and volleys/overheads are not included. Down-the-line is considered broadly and includes more central shots that remain on the same court half.

Serve and Return

1st Serves

2nd Serves

Return & rallying performance

Point-winning (court on the left for each player) and point-losing shots (court on the right for each player). Ball direction is from bottom to top.

Backhand point-winning (court on the left for each player) and point-losing shots (court on the right for each player). Ball direction is from bottom to top.

Rally length

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)

Points won with winners are highlighted in violet. Points won due to opponent’s errors are highlighted in grey

• Breakdown by error type (UFEs or FEs)

Points won with winners are highlighted in violet. Points won due to opponent’s errors are highlighted in grey

To find out more about the stats published here, please visit the following post.

While we follow the same criteria used on all major tennis events, our stats are collected through our own video analysis and are not official WTA or ITF stats.

Thanks for reading!

— Tennis Inside Numbers