Lyudmila Samsonova played the final of the five-year plan – Kommersant

In the final of the Chinese Open, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 Mandatory tournament with a prize fund of $8.1 million that ended in Beijing, Lyudmila Samsonova lost to world number two Iga Swiatek in straight sets. Despite this defeat, the 24-year-old Russian not only returns to the top twenty of the world rankings, but also becomes the main contender for the title of the country’s number one at the end of this season.

Although, unlike last season, there is now not a single Russian tennis player in the top ten of the world rankings, the finals of WTA tournaments with their participation remain a common occurrence. For example, this year the Russians played in 13 title matches, winning four of them. However, Russian representatives have not reached the decisive stages of the 1000 Mandatory category competitions, which take place in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing, being mandatory for the world elite, for a very long time. The previous time, this success was achieved by Daria Kasatkina, who lost to Japanese Naomi Osaka in Indian Wells in 2018, and the last Russian woman to take the prestigious title is still Elena Vesnina, who a year earlier broke the resistance of Svetlana Kuznetsova in the same final. As for Lyudmila Samsonova, her best results at the WTA 1000 Mandatory tournaments until last week were two appearances in the 1/8 finals – last year also in Indian Wells and this season in Madrid. Samsonova came to Beijing for the first time and, apparently, settled in well there. Having dealt with American Alicia Parks and two-time Wimbledon champion Czech Petra Kvitova, she won two breaks in the decisive set against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the 1/8 finals. This was followed by a relatively easy victory over Elena Ostapenko from Latvia, and in the semi-finals, last year’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan could not resist the attacking pressure of the Russian.

This victory was Samsonova’s sixth in a row in her meetings against tennis players who managed to win Grand Slam championships. However, she failed to extend her solid streak in the China Open finals. The second racket of the world, Iga Swiatek, who gave Samsonova only one game in February in Dubai, again left her practically no chance. Showing very aggressive tennis for herself, based on a high-quality serve, which in Beijing was noticeably tighter than before, the Polish tennis player completely controlled the course of the match, did not allow her opponent to earn a single break point, and she herself demonstrated one hundred percent of their implementation – four out of four.

By and large, the Russian only had enough for her debut. Having lost her serve in the sixth game after a double fault, she lost in 69 minutes – 2:6, 2:6.

Nevertheless, Lyudmila Samsonova should be pleased with the results of the Beijing week. Having earned a record number of ranking points in one tournament (650), she noticeably improved her position in the world classification, rising from 22nd place to 16th. Moreover, in terms of points scored since January, Samsonova is now generally 14th, ahead of all Russian tennis players. Behind her are Veronika Kudermetova, Daria Kasatkina, and Ekaterina Alexandrova, who are also in the top twenty according to this indicator, and since there are only two weeks left until the end of the WTA regular season, Samsonova is the favorite in their dispute.

From Beijing, she followed Kasatkina and Kudermetova to Zhengzhou, where the 500 category tournament will be held, and Alexandrova will try to defend her last year’s title in Seoul at the 250 category competition.

In turn, Iga Swiatek, who, by the way, confidently defeated US Open champion American Coco Gauff in the Beijing semifinals, made it clear that it was too early for world ranking leader Aryna Sabalenka to celebrate first place at the end of the season. Both of them have only one competition left to hold – the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico, where Gauff, Rybakina, American Jessica Pegula, Czechs Marketa Vondrousova and Karolina Muchova, as well as Uns Jabir from Tunisia also entered. But if Sabalenka suddenly fails to cope with the psychological load, then Swiatek, who seems to have regained her former confidence, will have the opportunity to close the gap of about 600 points, which she is inferior to the tennis player from Belarus.

Evgeniy Fedyakov