An American woman detained Samsonova in Washington. Lyudmila did not defend last year’s title.
Daniil Salnikov August 6, 2023, 01:26 Moscow time
But 38-year-old Vera Zvonareva became the doubles champion.
By Saturday, the unified tournament in Washington DC was back on schedule. All the matches postponed due to rain were recovered and the semifinals in singles and the final in women’s doubles have already been played. Two Russians reached this stage at once: last year’s singles champion Lyudmila Samsonova and 38-year-old Vera Zvonareva, paired with Germany’s Laura Siegemund.
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Samsonova knocked a Ukrainian off the grid in Washington and is now within a stone’s throw of defending her title
Vera Zvonareva has been on the WTA Tour for over 20 years. She was the second racket in the world, won 12 titles in singles, reached the finals of the 2008 WTA Final Championship, Wimbledon and the US Open-2010, she won bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In doubles, the Russian won the Australian Open and the US Open twice, in mixed doubles she excelled at Wimbledon and the US Open. The last doubles successes Zvonareva invariably achieved together with the German Laura Siegemund. Together they won the US Open – 2020, then Lyon and Miami 2022, and finally stood out in Washington 2023. In the final match, the girls beat the duo of Alex Guarachi (Chile) / Monica Niculescu (Romania) – 6: 4, 6 : 4. This is the thirteenth doubles title of Vera’s career.
Vera Zvonareva and Laura Siegemund are Washington 2023 doubles champions
Photo: twitter.com/mubadalacitidc
In singles, the top four were Lyudmila Samsonova, who is last year’s champion. En route to the semifinal, the 24-year-old Russian did not drop a set to her opponents, consistently beating American Danielle Collins, Romanian Sorana Kyrstu and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk. And in the semifinals, Samsonova for the first time got a seeded opponent – American Corey Gauff (3rd racket in the tournament), who is 5 years younger than her. The girls have met twice before, and in both cases, Gauff won, in the Linz-2019 qualifying and in Charleston-2021. By the way, after her first victory in Austria, 15-year-old Corey reached the base of the tournament in the status of a lucky loser, and then won her first WTA title.
Gauff played the first set with a lot of confidence, clearly acting on her serve. But already in the second game, the American managed to make a break in the second game, and in game 6 she almost increased the gap, but the Russian regained a break point. However, this advantage was enough for Corey to take the opening set: 6:3 in 44 minutes. Keep in mind that Samsonova made more than 20 unforced errors during this time. In the second game, the image did not change. Gauff still clearly held his serve, and in the third game of the fifth attempt he crushed his opponent – 2: 1, and then reflected 3 break points from his opponent – 3: 1, then two more – 4: 2. This advantage was enough for the American to win: 6:3, 6:3 in 1 hour and 43 minutes, which prevented the Russian from defending last year’s title.
This is how Corey Gauff arrived at the final of Washington 2023, where he will play with the Greek Maria Sakkari, who defeated the first racket of the tournament Jessica Pegula in three sets. Note that Pegula, thanks to a successful performance in the US capital on Monday, will become the 3rd racket in the world and knock out Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan from this position.
