The second seed, Sobolenko, started the tournament with a hard-fought straight-sets win over Petra Martic. The Belarusian had a particularly difficult time in the second set, but she managed to prevail in a 7-5 tie-break.
The 6-3, 7-6(5) victory saw Sobolenko improve her win-loss record for the season to 41-8, making her the second player to break 40 wins after Iga Swiatek.
Meanwhile, Samsonova is looking to build on her reasonably successful run in Washington last week, where she beat Marta Kostyuk and Danielle Collins en route to the semis.
The Russian confirmed that with two solid wins over Katerina Sinyakova and Qinwen Zheng in Montreal, and improved her 2023 record to 21-17.
Sobolenko and Samsonova each won a head-to-head match. Their last meeting was earlier this year at the Adelaide International, where the Belarusian came out on top.
Arina Sobolenko and Lyudmila Samsonova have the same powerful game and like to play in their matches as the first number.
However, none of the tennis players have yet played at their highest level in Montreal. This can be seen in the first serve percentage, which hovers around 50% for Sobolenko and Samsonova.
But the Belarusian had 13 aces in one game. As she and Samsonova have fairly even stats, the number of first serves may become the deciding factor. Sabolenko throws more powerful shots and a strong first-serve percentage could help him qualify for the quarter-finals. The winner of this pair will play with Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic or Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
Forecast: Victory of Sobolenko in three sets
Vyacheslav Gorbachev/Athletistic
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I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
