Daria Kasatkina has one hope for Mirra Andreeva as she makes prediction about her future

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Daria Kasatkina is currently enjoying one of her best-ever years on the WTA Tour after winning the Ningbo Open.

Kasatkina now has two WTA 500 titles to her name this season, with a third top 10 finish now on the cards.

She has moved up two places to ninth in the standings following her Ningbo Open success, where she overcame Mirra Andreeva in the final.

Andreeva had only just lost to her sister Erika at the Wuhan Open, but recovered superbly from that round of 32 defeat to make the Ningbo Open final.

The 17-year-old picked up superb wins against the likes of Barbora Krejcikova and Karolina Muchova on her way to the last two.

Daria Kasatkina praises Mirra Andreeva after beating her in the Ningbo Open final

But Russian ace Kasatkina was too strong for her compatriot, with the fifth seed coming out on top 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

The victor was quick to console the runner-up in Ningbo, with Kasatkina a huge fan of the talented teenager.

“Mirra is an incredible girl, honestly,” said Kasatkina, as per the WTA website. “It’s incredible how in one person there is a mix of a kid and maturity at the same time.

“Her sense of humour and what she’s saying in native language is just a joke. Some words she’s using and stuff, she’s so funny.”

Daria Kasatkina has one hope for rising star Mirra Andreeva

But while the 27-year-old is full of praise for a player who is 10 years her junior, Kasatkina is well aware of the pressure being put on Andreeva’s shoulders.

The 17-year-old currently occupies a career-high ranking of 17th in the world, and already has one tour-level title to her name.

But Kasatkina wants her compatriot to block out the outside noise as best she can in order to fully reach her fantastic potential.

“She’s a very good person, and already a very good player and will be much better,” she added. “For the last year I’ve been calling her ‘a piece of gold.’ But I don’t want to say so many good things because everyone is saying this and she is so young.

“I wish her to just go and improve every single day because I know how it is to hear only good things every single day and then you have the expectations in the sky and it’s hard to manage. I hope she can go on mute and just play and that’s it. If she will just play, that will be enough.”

Fresh from her Ningbo Open success, Kasatkina has now moved on to Tokyo for the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

She is the third seed at the latest Asian event, with the Russian world number nine taking on McCartney Kessler in the round of 16.

Their fellow WTA star Naomi Osaka planned to play in Tokyo, but the four-time Grand Slam champion has instead decided to finish her season early due to injury.