While Pegula played lights-out tennis from the start she also had an edge given Samsonova had to play the match about two hours after upsetting third seed Elena Rybakina in a rain-postponed semi-final clash meant to be played on Saturday.
"It's tough, it sucks, I feel bad that we weren't able to play on a more fair playing ground," Pegula said after securing her second WTA 1000 title.
Pegula, who beat doubles partner Coco Gauff and world number one Iga Swiatek on the way to the final, was clearly the more rested of the two players and it did not take long for the unfortunate scheduling to show its impact.
The top-ranked American won a remarkable 100% of her first-serve points, broke Samsonova five times and never faced a break point while wrapping up the one-sided victory in 49 minutes.
Pegula was in control throughout as she went up a double break before closing out the first set on her serve and faced no resistance from Samsonova in the second frame.
She was well aware of the edge she carried into the match and made sure to credit the Russian 15th seed, whose path to the final also included a win over reigning Australian Open champion and world number two Aryna Sabalenka.
"She had some amazing, two top-10 wins beating two girls that are some of the best players in world, top five right now and winning Grand Slams," said Pegula.
"To me, she should be a top-10 player, hopefully she gets there and she's had great results. So kudos to her and I feel bad that it wasn't the way it should have been but I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes."
The world number three said she was hungry for more success after ending a stellar week with her first title of the season.
"Beating Coco and Iga were two tough wins back-to-back and being able to do that and then come out and play a really clean match was great," Pegula told reporters. "I felt I didn't have a ton of pressure at any point or I wasn't worried too much.
"We're out on tour to win tournaments and win titles every single week, but tennis can be really tough where you sometimes lose a lot. Even when you're winning a lot of matches, you're still not winning tournaments, so it can get tough.
"Winning a week like this week makes it all worth it and makes you want to keep going for more. I'll be right back at it in Cincinnati."
