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The Luxembourg Open lost both its first and second seed on Friday as top seed Belinda Bencic and second seed Elise Mertens crashed out in their respective quarter-final. Seventh seed Liudmila Samsonova ousted Bencic 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 13 minutes.
The Russian put in 57% of her first-serves in to Bencic’s 60% but won 80% of her first-serve points as compared to Bencic’s 56%. She also won marginally more points off her second serves as compared to her opponent – 65% to the latter’s 63%.
Samsonova also broke Bencic thrice across the match while saving both break points, she faced. She ended up with 61 points to the Swiss’ 44 for the match. This is Samsonova’s second win over the 2020 Tokyo Games’ winner this year.
Earlier, she’d defeated Bencic in the final of the Bett1 Open in Berlin to claim her first WTA title. Meanwhile, this is also the second semi-final for Samsonova this season.
Luxembourg Open: Jelena Ostapenko's the highest seed standing
Looking for a place in the second WTA final of her career, Samsonova will take on third seed Jelena Ostapenko.
The Latvian defeated eighth seed Alize Cornet 7-6(6), 6-2 in an hour and 31 minutes. Ostapenko played a clutch match, especially in the second set, to win in straight sets against the Frenchwoman. She faced two break points, both of which came in the first set, and wasn’t able to save either.
However, she also broke Cornet a total of four times. The 2017 French Open champion finished with a dozen more points than Cornet – 72 to the latter’s 60 to finish the match. Fifth seed Marketa Vondrousova was responsible for the exit of Mertens.
The Czech needed an hour and 37 minutes to complete a 7-5, 6-2 win over the world no. 16. Vondrousova broke Mertens five times while losing her serve twice during the course of the match. The 2020 Tokyo Games’ silver medallist won 72 points for the match to her opponent’s 57.
In the semi-finals of the Luxembourg Open, Vondrousova will take on Clara Tauson. Tauson defeated Marie Bouzkova 6-3, 6-2 in their quarter-final match. Photo Credit: Luxembourg Open Twitter