In 52 minutes of the match, Samsonova gave only one game to her opponent.
Russian Lyudmila Samsonova had to start the tennis tournament in Abu Dhabi with a match against Ukrainian Lesya Tsurenko. The opponent is known not so much for her great sporting victories as for her amazing inhospitability. She refuses to shake hands after meetings with Russian and Belarusian athletes. True, not everyone is ready to shake hands with her.
In the next game, Tsurenko’s torment was short-lived – just 52 minutes after the start of the match, she got the chance to defiantly walk past Samsonova, who simply destroyed her on the court.
Discouraging start
On Monday, February 5, the WTA 500 tennis tournament started in Abu Dhabi with a prize fund of $922.5 thousand. There are plenty of famous contenders for the trophy. Among them it is worth highlighting Ekaterina Rybakina, Ons Jabeur, Maria Sakkari, Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducana. Russians Veronika Kudermetova, Daria Kasatkina and Lyudmila Samsonova also arrived in the UAE to compete for the title.
For Kudermetova, it all ended in the first round, where she lost to Briton Heather Watson in two sets. Kasatkina reached the second round, beating Frenchwoman Diane Parry in three games, and is now preparing to meet American Ashlyn Kruger. Samsonova also moved on – she won the victory over the Ukrainian Tsurenko surprisingly easily.
Before the match in the capital of the Emirates, Lyudmila and Lesya met once: in the Australian Open qualification, the Russian woman won in two sets. The prospects of the Ukrainian tennis player in the second meeting also quickly came into question. She started the game extremely poorly and lost the game on her serve to zero. It turned out that Tsurenko was unable to pull himself together after such a discouraging start.
Lyudmila Samsonova / Photo: © Francois Nel / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
No handshakes
Tsurenko immediately tried to make a reverse break and, by the way, was close to the goal. But Lyudmila did not allow her opponent to return to the game. Samsonova’s excellent reception and stable serve put an end to all the Ukrainian’s efforts. Our athlete won the four remaining games in the opening game, and in the last two she did not give up a single rally to her opponent.
Theoretically, Tsurenko could have changed after the break, as often happens in women’s tennis, but in the second set there were no fundamental changes in her game. The serve didn’t fly; there wasn’t enough strength to fight in long rallies. The intrigue died quickly, the fans in the stands yawned.
Lesya, of course, resisted as best she could, but she could only do so much in this match. Zero aces, zero breaks and seven double faults eloquently hinted at the current capabilities of the Ukrainian. In the second set it was enough to win the only game. At the end of the match, Tsurenko didn’t succeed at all: he would either serve into the net, or play out, or even forget to hit the racket, idly tossing the ball on the serve.
To the delight of the audience, the Ukrainian woman’s torment was short-lived. After the match ended, she went to catch her second of glory, pointedly ignoring the Russian woman in front of the cameras. However, Samsonova knew who was playing against her, and did not even try to shake hands with her unfriendly opponent. Fortunately, Tsurenko will no longer provoke our girls in Abu Dhabi, and with such a game she may even lose the opportunity to perform at competitions of this level.
In the second round, Samsonova will have to play with another representative of Ukraine, Angelina Kalinina. We won’t have to count on a handshake again, but if the match goes according to a similar scenario, then such little things are unlikely to upset our athlete.
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2024-02-06 20:00:25
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