Ascending: how Aleksandrova and Samsonova won WTA tournaments in Seoul and Tokyo

Russian tennis players this season have noticeably improved their game.

And if earlier fans were waiting for titles exclusively from men, then over the past two months, girls have been able to win trophies at WTA-250 and WTA-500 level competitions six times already.

On Sunday, September 25, Lyudmila Samsonova and Ekaterina Aleksandrova achieved another simultaneous success in Asia.

The 24th racket of the world took part in the tournament in Seoul.

The athlete was seeded under the second number, so she got the grid is not the most difficult.

As a result, she met serious resistance on the way to the final only in the first round, where she gave the set to the American Aisha Muhammad, who is not in the top 100 of the WTA rating.

However, Alexandrova had to fight for the title with the winner of Roland Garros 2017, Elena Ostapenko.

This season, the Latvian won the trophy in Dubai, and also almost repeated her success five years ago, reaching the semi-finals of the French Open.

However, in personal meetings, the advantage was with the Russian woman, who won four head-to-head confrontations out of six.

Ekaterina did not have any big problems this time either.

Although the match started quite nervously, this was expressed in the fact that the girls could not take their serve in any way.

In many ways, the ninth game turned out to be a turning point.

Ostapenko by that time was leading 5:3 and served for a set, but in the end she gave it to the Russian woman “under zero”.

This gave strength to Alexandrova: she brought the matter to a tie-break and confidently won it - 7:4.

And in the second installment, the Latvian did not succeed at all on the court.

Ekaterina immediately made a break and then did not lose a single game.

Did not help Elena and the medical time-out, which she took when the score was 0:3.

Interestingly, the previous final of Alexandrova in Rotterdam in June developed according to the same scenario.

Then it turned out to be a very stubborn first set with the Belarusian Arina Sobolenko, and then the domestic tennis player took the second to zero and won the trophy.

For Ekaterina, this is the second title of the season and the third in her career, and for the first time she will rise to 21st place in the WTA rankings.

The Russian woman is already 27 years old, but the athlete, it seems, was able to find her game only now.

It remains to be hoped that next year this emerging stability and confidence will not go anywhere.

However, experts expect much more from her compatriot, 23-year-old Samsonova.

According to the head of the Russian Tennis Federation (FTR) Shamil Tarpishchev, she can get into the top 10 of the world ranking.

“Lyudmila needs to be praised.

Probably the strongest tournament she has ever won.

It goes on increasing - it may well qualify for the world top ten.

I am glad that the whole tournament played very stably - with a good fighting character.

She has high prospects: she is a girl with character, ”Tarpishchev is quoted as saying by Championship.

Samsonov, indeed, has recently shown good results.

In two months, she won three titles.

While previously she could boast of only one trophy.

Moreover, during this time he won 18 matches out of 19.

The only misfire occurred in the 1/8 finals of the US Open in the confrontation with Ayla Tomlyanovic.

At the same time, the tournament in Tokyo was higher in level than Alexandrova’s, and Lyudmila’s rivals were not the simplest: Wimbledon triumphant Elena Rybakina, two-time TBS winner Garbine Muguruza, as well as three Chinese women at once - Xinyu Wang, Zhang Shuai and Zheng Qinwen.

However, in five matches, the Russian woman did not give up a single set, and looked quite confident in the decisive match.

She won with a score of 7:5, 7:5.

In this game, the composure of Samsonova impressed, who made a break twice in the 11th game and then confidently took her pitch.

And if Lyudmila tried to control her emotions on the court, then later she threw them out in front of the fans, admitting on social networks that she was happy to achieve such a result.

“I have no words to describe my feelings.

It's been an incredible week, my opponents have been very good and I should have been the best, but... I did it!

Arigato, Tokyo, see you next year!

And, of course, thanks to my team, which always helps me to give all my best, ”the athlete wrote.

Samsonova, thanks to the victory, as well as Alexandrova, will improve her position in the world rankings and for the first time in her career will rise to 23rd place.

In general, the Russians, including Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova, can clearly write down the current season as an asset.

And it is already possible to sum up its results slowly, since there are not so many competitions left on the calendar.

Yes, of course, these results cannot be compared with the 2000s, when Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova shone, but there is certainly a progressive movement forward.