Rybakina beat Americans Jennifer Brady and Sloane Stevens in Montreal and reached the quarter-finals, where Daria Kasatkina awaited her. The match was hot, it lasted three sets with 20 service breaks from both tennis players.
Kasatkina served twice for the match, once in the second set and then again in the third set. She even had match point, but Rybakina showed nerves of steel to endure and win 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8).
Samsonova defeated Katerina Sinyakova and Qinwen Zheng to advance to the third round, where she faced world No. 2 Arina Sobolenko. Their match was postponed for a day due to weather, but the Russian beat her opponent in straight sets and moved on.
Samsonova played the second match of the day against Belinda Bencic. The Russian was easier in the quarterfinals than against Sobolenko. Samsonova had a break in each set to win the match 6-4, 6-4.
Samsonova leads the personal matches against Rybakina with a score of 2:0. The last encounter was at the Pan Pacific Open 2022 and the Russian prevailed in straight sets.
Rybakina is usually a pretty decent pitcher, but that wasn’t the case in the previous game against Kasatkina. She lost ground 10 times and landed her first ace only midway through the second set.
On Friday, Samsonova played two games, after a tough performance against Sobolenko she didn’t have to try hard against Bencic. The Russian saved all five break points from the Swiss and scored 82% of the points on first serve.
Fatigue may well be the deciding factor in this game. Yesterday, Samsonova had two matches, but the three-hour marathon fight between Rybakina and Kasatkina ended very late.
Both rely on their serve to set the tone of the game. Rybakina hopes that her serve won’t leave her again, because if Elena plays the same as against Kasatkina, she will lose. Ryjakina isn’t in the best physical shape, and combined with the late quarter-final ending, Samsonova should prevail in this fight.
Forecast: victory of Lyudmila Samsonova 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.
