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Liudmila Samsonova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich will play for the title at the Cleveland Open on Saturday. On Friday, Samsonova and Sasnovich came through their respective semi-final against Bernarda Pera and Alize Cornet respectively.
Samsonova needed merely 53 minutes to wrap up a 6-1, 6-2 win against the American. She put in only 64% of her first serves but reaped 95% points off them. In comparison, Pera put in 79% of her first serves but could only win 53% points off them.
Samsonova won 77% of her second-serve points and 89% points on return on her opponent’s second serve. A total of 30 winners that included seven aces completed Samsonova’s stats sheet. She went on to convert four of the nine break points that came her way while facing none on her serve.
For the match, Samsonova won 56 points, more than twice as many as Pera’s 23.
Cleveland Open: Aliaksandra Sasnovich on the hunt for a career first
Meanwhile, in the bottom half that saw the last two seeds go head-to-head against each other, Sasnovich needed to go the full distance while coming up with a comeback against Cornet.
In the end, after two hours and 51 minutes of play, Sasnovich claimed a 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 victory. Sasnovich won only 56% of her first-serve points to Cornet’s 63% but won a higher margin of points off her second serve as compared to the latter – 68% to the latter’s 34%.
Both players faced 12 break points each but where Sasnovich saved seven break points, Cornet could only save five. The Cleveland Open final’s Aliaksandra Sasnovich’s second final of this season. Earlier, she reached the final of the Melbourne Summer Set in January, prior to the Australian Open.
She’s looking to claim the first title of her career. This is Liudmila Samsonova’s second final of 2022 as well and she’s looking to win a WTA title for the second time this year, and for the third time in her career. Photo Credit: Cleveland Open Twitter