Daria Kasatkina roars into second straight San Jose final; American Shelby Rogers awaits

WATCH: Rogers was first into San Jose final with a comprehensive win over Veronika Kudermetova.

Daria Kasatkina roared into her first final of the season, knocking out Paula Badosa, 6-2, 6-4 at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.

Kasatkina saved three break points in the final game to upset the No. 2 seed in 82 minutes and book a second straight San Jose final, where Shelby Rogers awaits for what will be the American’s first hard-court final.

The Roland Garros semifinalist arrived to only her second tournament since having to miss Wimbledon due to the All England Club’s ban of Russian and Belarusian players, and her first since coming out as gay in a powerful documentary produced by vlogger Vitya Kravchenko.

Playing loose and fearless tennis, Kasatkina has decimated a draw that featured reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and No. 4 seed Aryna Sabalenka to reach the semifinal stage against Badosa, whom she’d beaten in their most recent encounter at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Badosa has enjoyed a resurgence of her own in San Jose: after narrowly defeating American upstart Elizabeth Mandlik, she rallied from a break down in the opening set to dismiss Roland Garros runner-up Coco Gauff in straight sets, and made early in-roads on the Kasatkina serve on Stadium Court.

Kasatkina gamely dug out of a 0-30 lead in her opening serve game and promptly broke the Spaniard at one game apiece riding that momentum to a convincing opening set. Following a visit from the trainer, Badosa emerged stronger in the second set and broke to start, only to fall behind and lose serve twice more to hand Kasatkina a chance to serve out the match.

As 11th-hour nerves dogged the No. 7-seeded Kasatkina, Badosa appeared poised to level things at five games all, but the Russian steadied and secured an impressive straight-sets victory.

For a second straight year, she’ll face an American in the final: this time it will be Rogers instead of 2021 champion Danielle Collins. Rogers last reached a WTA final on clay in 2016, but put together an eye-catching run of her own this week in California thanks to wins over Bianca Andreescu, top-seeded Maria Sakkari, and fellow American Amanda Anisimova.

Facing Veronika Kudermetova in the semis, Rogers converted five of seven break point opportunities to defeat the Russian in 80 minutes flat.

Though Kasatkina defeated Rogers at Roland Garros in their last meeting only two months ago, Rogers had the upper hand on her higher-ranked rival on hard courts, defeating her in three sets at the 2017 Miami Open.