Athletistic/Tennis. Russians Lyudmila Samsonova and Ekaterina Alexandrova will play in the second round of the tournament in Tokyo. Who will be the strongest ?
Alexandrova
Ekaterina started the tournament with a strong-willed victory over Anna Kalinskaya – 6:7, 6:1, 7:5. In the tiebreak, Alexandrova played perfect games on her own serve – her opponent didn’t have a single break point. Last week, the Russian completed the first round of the mountain thousand meters in Guadalajara, winning two tiebreakers against Magdalena Frech. But then Caroline Dolehide suffered a crushing defeat. In San Diego, Alexandrova lost to Alena Ostapenko in her first match (6:7, 7:6, 5:7). But it also has enough positive aspects. At the end of August, the 21st racket in the world reached the final in Cleveland, then won two matches at the US Open.
Samsonova
Lyudmila, for her part, made little effort in the first round. The Russian beat the German Tatiana Maria – 6:0, 6:2. Samsonova won the title here last year, so she will have to defend 500 points this week. And given this nuance, we can assume that she should not have problems with concentration and mood. But it will still be difficult to cover the whole distance. If only because this time Iga Swiatek came here.
Earlier this season, Ekaterina defeated Lyudmila on grass in Berlin – 6:4, 6:3. Oddly enough, Alexandrova has been playing very well on this specific surface for some time now. But on hard court, Samsonova has even better chances of winning. Most likely, she will take revenge.
Since 2018, Samsonova has participated in competitions under the auspices of the ITF and WTA under the Russian flag. In 2019, for the first time in her career, she appeared in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament: after qualifying, Samsonova lost to 23rd seed Donna Vekic of Croatia at Roland Garros . In August 2023, Samsonova reached the final of the WTA-1000 tournament in Montreal and, despite the defeat, became the first racket of Russia for the first time in her career.
The audience will not be bored at the next meeting. A tough fight is expected. It is worth agreeing with the bookmakers’ quotes. Samsonova should win.
Andrey Andreev, Sport.Ru
Source: Sport
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