Liudmila Samsonova wasn’t exactly left pleased with her performance even after beating qualifier Guo Hanyu, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round. The eighth seed ended up facing 11 breakpoints — including up until the final game of the match — and had to spend nearly two hours on court in order to prevail against the Chinese player.
It has been a mixed last few weeks in China for the Russian, who suffered an opening-round loss to Lois Boisson in Beijing but made it to the third round in Wuhan. The world No. 18 has barely won half of her hard-court matches this season, but has likely done just enough to secure a top-20 year-end ranking for the third time in four seasons.
The 26-year-old has been to half a dozen quarterfinals over the course of the season, spread across all three surfaces, including in tournaments such as Indian Wells and Wimbledon. She is one step away from reaching her third-ever quarterfinal in an East Asian country after the ones in Tokyo in 2022 (title) and Beijing in 2023 (runner-up).
McCartney Kessler was imperious against compatriot Sofia Kenin on Monday and needed just 53 minutes to prevail 6-1, 6-0, saving all three breakpoints in the process. This is a good comeback after her first-round loss to Jaqueline Cristian in Wuhan, although it has been a decent China swing with her fourth-round finish in Beijing.
The American may have only reached three WTA quarterfinals over the 2025 season, but converted them into titles (Hobart, Nottingham) and a runner-up finish (Austin). This has been a sufficiently satisfying way to back up her breakthrough 2024 season — which contained a title in Cleveland — and proved just enough for her top-30 debut.
Head-to-head: 0-0. McCartney Kessler has brought about her career’s first three top-20 scalps over the course of this season, including knocking out Mirra Andreeva in Montreal. Further, the world No. 33 recently took out Elise Mertens and Barbora Krejcikova (ret) in Beijing and will certainly be a worthy challenger for Liudmila Samsonova.
