Lyudmila Samsonova reached the final of the Masters in Montreal and became the first racket of Russia

In the final of the Omnium Banque Nationale presente par Rogers, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 category competition that ended in Montreal with a prize fund of $2.7 million, Lyudmila Samsonova lost to world No. 3 Jessica Pegula in straight sets. Despite this result, the 24-year-old Russian has achieved major success. For the first time in one week, she beat two rivals from the top 4 of the world ranking – Arina Sobolenko and Elena Rybakina, returned to the highest 12th place in the world ranking in her career and has good prospects to soon be in the top ten.

After Lyudmila Samsonova won three WTA tournaments in Washington, Cleveland and Tokyo in the second half of last season, it seemed that she had very little left before breaking into the top ten of the world ranking. These expectations have been fueled by her spectacular attacking Russian tennis, which is based on an excellent first serve. However, this year Samsonova again went into the shadows. Months passed, and on her account there was only the final of the average level of participants in the February competition in Abu Dhabi. As for the Grand Slam championships and 1000 category tournaments, Samsonova never went beyond the third round. It is not surprising that, having risen to 12th place at the end of winter, in July she again found herself at the bottom of the top twenty, and in terms of points scored since January, she was only 31st at all.

However, with the beginning of the American series on hard, Lyudmila Samsonova, like a year ago, has changed. In Washington, although she failed to defend her last year’s title, she nevertheless reached the semifinals, where she lost only to the seventh racket of the world, Coco Gauff. The Russian woman was gradually regaining confidence, without which, with her risk-based style, it is impossible to succeed, and the proof of this was the victory in the first round of the Montreal “masters” against a rather difficult opponent – the leader of the WTA doubles rating Czech Katerina Sinyakova, whom Samsonova had not defeated before .

This was followed by a good match against the progressing 20-year-old Chinese woman Zheng Qinwen and the hardest Friday victory in the third round over the second racket of the world and the champion of the Australian Open Belarusian Arina Sobolenko. It was already a big surprise. Moreover, due to changes in the schedule associated with constant rain, Samsonova also had to play the quarterfinals on the same day against Tokyo Olympic champion Belinda Bencic. And after a break of about six hours, without ever giving up her serve, she passed the Swiss in two games, reaching the semi-finals.

There, in the way of Samsonova, stood the fourth racket of the world, Elena Rybakina, who also suffered greatly due to the Canadian bad weather. The start of her quarter-final against Daria Kasatkina, who was last on the Friday schedule, had to be moved, and having started shortly before midnight Montreal time, it ended only at 2 hours and 54 minutes. Rybakina won in the tie-break of the third game from the fifth match point, having played Kasatkina’s match point before that. In such a situation, the rain postponement of the Saturday semi-final was a boon for last year’s Wimbledon champion, but Samsonova outplayed her on Sunday as well. Having easily lost the first set, the Russian just as quickly leveled the situation and no longer gave up the initiative, winning in 1 hour 43 minutes – 1:6, 6:1, 6:2. The problem was that Samsonova was given only two hours to prepare for the final, and there she was waiting for the third racket of the world, Jessica Pegula, who performed in Montreal on a more benign schedule and in the semifinals coped with the leader of the WTA rating, Pole Iga Sventek. The second time to play two matches in three days, and even with such status opponents, is a very difficult task, and it is not surprising that the Russian woman could not cope with it, losing in 49 minutes – 1:6, 0:6.

Despite this setback, Samsonova almost achieved a breakthrough. Having played the debut final at the Masters, where she had not gone further than the 1/8 finals before, she not only returned to the 12th place in the ranking, but also became the first racket of Russia, which she had never been able to do before. The next stage of the American WTA series will be another “masters” in Cincinnati. Unlike Pegula, Samsonova was not among the top eight seeded there, and she will play her opening match against 18-year-old Czech Linda Noskova on Tuesday. Since the Russian woman will have to defend a significant number of rating points in the next few weeks, it will not be easy for her to claim a place in the top 10. Nevertheless, Samsonova certainly has a chance to be there at the end of the year. In terms of points scored this season, she is 518 points behind the top ten. Considering that there are still quite a few major tournaments on the calendar, this is not such a big gap. Moreover, if Samsonova manages to keep the level of the game, she will be able to compete for a ticket to the final WTA tournament in Shenzhen, where eight of the strongest tennis players in the world will play in November.

Evgeny Fedyakov