Synchronous success: how Kasatkina and Samsonova won tournaments in North America

Synchronous victories by Daria Kasatkina and Lyudmila Samsonova at tournaments in North America in the summer have become a good tradition.

In early August, they delighted domestic fans, excelling in San Jose and Washington, respectively, and after just three weeks they repeated this achievement.

This time, Daria won in Granby, and Lyudmila Samsonova won in Cleveland.

They did it the day before the start of the US Open.

It was especially important to succeed in the first racket of Russia, which, after the triumph in San Jose, performed extremely unsuccessfully in Toronto and Cincinnati.

From both competitions, she flew out in the first round, losing to Bianca Andreescu and Amanda Anisimova.

Therefore, it was extremely necessary for her to regain confidence in herself before the US Open.

To this end, Kasatkina used the wild card of the WTA-250 tournament in Granby, Canada, where she was the first seed.

There was simply no one to compete with her there.

Surprisingly, Kasatkina experienced the most problems in the confrontation with the modest Gretier Minnen, who is not even included in the top 100 of the world ranking.

However, the representative of Belgium was the only one who managed to take the set from the main favorite - 6:7, 6:4, 6:2.

The rest were unable to do anything with Daria.

One after another, she knocked out Magdalena Frech, Nuria Parrizas-Diaz and Dian Parry, giving them a total of only 12 games.

The Frenchwoman managed to win only two in the semifinals.

In the decisive confrontation, Kasatkina could well have met with Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, but she withdrew from the match with Daria Saville.

Thus, the fans actually witnessed the battle of two domestic athletes, because Saville, nee Gavrilova, performed under the flag of Russia until 2015 and only then moved to Australia.

And last year, she married local tennis player Luke Saville and changed her last name.

In the final, not much was expected of her, and it went into her hands.

The 28-year-old athlete acted calmly and relaxed, while the Russian woman sometimes made her fans nervous.

In general, both tennis players made a large number of mistakes and did not look too confident on their own serve.

As a result, for two they made nine breaks.

Kasatkina, at the right moment, seemed to give her opponent a chance herself.

For example, in the first game, she failed to immediately submit a set, but immediately making a reverse break, Saville put the squeeze - 6:4.

In the second, Daria was leading 4:1, but she almost squandered a significant advantage.

The Russian woman twice gave the Australian her own serve, but at the decisive moment she nevertheless gathered herself, having realized the fifth match point.

This helped the country's first racket win the second tournament in less than a month and the sixth in his career.

Moreover, on the eve of the US Open, she will overtake Garbine Muguruza in the WTA rankings and rise from tenth to ninth.

Samsonova made even less effort to win in Cleveland.

Unlike her compatriot, she missed tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati after her triumph at the beginning of the month.

This was due to the fact that she, having not the highest rating, did not get into the main draw, and did not play in the qualification.

For example, she did not have time to come to Canada, because she played decisive matches in Washington.

But for the competition in Cleveland, the final one before the US Open, Lyudmila came up full of energy.

In addition, the level of opposition, as in the case of Kasatkina, left much to be desired.

Barbora Kreichikova, ranked 23rd in the WTA ranking, had the highest rating of all participants.

And the third seed was another Russian Ekaterina Aleksandrova.

It is not surprising that Samsonova, who gained excellent shape, did not leave her rivals a chance, especially since she almost always met with tennis players who were below her in the ranking.

Perhaps the most dangerous was the confrontation with the Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the first round, but it did not take place.

But then Ludmila consistently knocked out Irina Shimanovich, Laura Siegemund, Magda Linett and Bernard Pera.

Even the last one, who approached the game with a Russian woman with a series of 13 victories in a row, took only three games from her.

Lynette managed to impose the greatest competition on her in the quarterfinals, losing with a decent score - 4:6, 3:6.

As a result, a native of the Murmansk region did not give a single set to the USA.

In the decisive confrontation, the struggle also did not work out, although Alexandra Sasnovich, who met Samsonova for the first time in her career, intended to give her a fight.

But Lyudmila in Cleveland was unstoppable.

First of all, she was unstoppable on the serve, winning 80% on the first and throwing four aces.

The opponent never found the keys to her and only once managed to make a break against five from the Russian woman.

In the first set, she managed to take only one game, and in the second - three.

Thus, the domestic athlete once again pleased the fans before the US Open.

She won the second tournament in a row, although before that she had only one to her credit.

Last year, Lyudmila excelled in Germany.

Along the way, she increased her winning streak to ten meetings.

The last time she was defeated back in Bad Homburg in June, when she unexpectedly lost to compatriot Kamilla Rakhimova.

The only fly in the ointment for Samsonova was the absence of the Russian flag.

Moreover, the final in Cleveland was held without banners at all, since Belarusians are also forced to play in a neutral status.

“I want to congratulate Sasha and her entire team.

She and I were in the same situation, as we both played without a flag, and it was very unusual.

But I think we need to find a minute and say that we are good people.

I also want to thank the fans for their loud support throughout the week.

And, of course, thanks to my team, ”TASS tennis player quotes.