WTA250 Nottingham: McCartney Kessler vs Dayana Yastremska final analysis
Capable of adopting several different "skins" on a tennis court, Kessler secured third Tour title in the last 10 months
Versatile McCartney Kessler (WTA #42) won a third career WTA 250 title by deploying a third different blueprint in a title decider.
The 25-year old American used a relatively conservative yet savvy approach to beat Dayana Yastremska (WTA #45) 6-4, 7-5 in the Lexus Nottingham Open final, after outlasting Beatriz Haddad Maia in a comeback win at Cleveland last August and overpowering Elise Mertens in Hobart at the start of the year.
Kessler’s previous WTA 250 titles:
Because Kessler didn’t enter any of the events currently taking place, she will head into Wimbledon on a 5-match win streak. That is the third time it happens over the last 4 Majors, following her triumph in Cleveland the week before last year's US Open and the unbeaten debut at Hobart in the last tuneup event for the 2025 Australian Open!
The former NCAA standout is hoping this one works out better though. Despite arriving high in confidence, Kessler couldn’t avoid falling in the first round to Marta Kostyuk in New York and to Zhang Shuai in Melbourne.
In London, Kessler is scheduled to meet 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who is also riding her own 5-match win streak following last Sunday’s triumph in Berlin, so her task won’t be any easy.
Match analysis
A quick glance at the final stats of the Kessler-Yastremska duel in Nottingham is enough to spot its decisive metric. Yastremska accumulated 36 unforced errors while Kessler finished with 13, nearly just a third of her opponent’s total.
On a deeper look, we identified 4 key factors the thoughtful and chameleonic Kessler used to overcome Yastremska and her more instinctive power game:
Impeccable return length
Slice 2nd serves, the majority directed towards Yastremska’s forehand
A “cat & mouse” game that kept rallies to Yastremska’s backhand
Increased aggression to close out both sets