On Friday, May 24, the semifinals of the women’s 500 meters were held in Strasbourg and the WTA-250 series tournament in Rabat. Among the Russians Lyudmila Samsonova and Kamilla Rakhimova fought today to reach the decisive phase of the competition.
Samsonova (19) competed with the American representative Madison Keys in the fight to reach the half-final. The personal match score is 3-1 in favor of the American. Lyudmila won the first match between them, which took place in the quarterfinals of Berlin 2021 (7:6 (4), 2:6, 7:6 (0); in that grass tournament, Samsonova, who started from the classification, he sensationally became the champion. Then, Madison won twice on hard courts (in Adelaide 2022 and at the US Open 2023), and this year he also won on clay in Madrid, and easily 6-2, 6-. 3.
On the way to the face-to-face confrontation, the girls had already had several fights. The national athlete defeated Barbora Krejcikova (6:2, 6:7, 6:4), Leila Fernández (4:6, 6:4, 6:2) and Beatriz Haddad-Maya (6:3, 6:0) . Yesterday’s victory over the Brazilian allowed Samsonova to reach her second semi-final this season. If she triumphed in Strasbourg, Lyudmila had the chance to become the fourteenth racket in the world. It should be noted that the competition in France was the Russian’s first tournament since the 500 in Abu Dhabi, where she achieved three consecutive victories.
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Kis, seeded second, made it through the opening round without a fight and then defeated China’s Xinyu Wang 7:5, 6:0. In the quarterfinals of the tournament in Strasbourg, Madison defeated Poland’s Magda Linett in two sets: 6:1, 6:3.
The start of the new match with the 29-year-old American did not go well for Samsonova. The Russian quickly lost five (!) games in a row. Thus, during the entire first set, the third racket of our country could only win one game: 1:6 in 26 minutes. Lyudmila’s rival showed very good tennis. Keys attacked a lot, led the game, used a strong serve and powerful forehands, including back crosses. Let’s keep in mind that in the opening match our compatriot committed 13 (!) unforced errors, while Madison committed only six.
Already at the beginning of the second set the rain interfered with the game. The tennis players entered the grandstand room and returned to the court almost an hour later. The pause was of no use to Samsonova. She immediately gave up her serve, 1:0 in favor of Keys. At the break point, the Russian went to the net and the opponent played perfectly with her feet: Lyudmila could not handle the difficult ball. Then the American representative consolidated her success 2-0. Once again the match was interrupted by rain. After the next break, the Russian took serve 2-1. Halfway through the second game, Samsonova improved a little and was able to make two breaks, but nothing worked on her serve. Overall, Madison played better and deservedly achieved a victory 6:1, 6:3. The number 16 racket in the world played deeply, won a lot, made few mistakes and her opponent had many inaccuracies. In the finals, Keys will play either Angelina Kalinina or Danielle Collins.
Kamilla Rakhimova (109) fought with the Egyptian Mayar Sherif (66) to reach the final in Rabat. The tennis players faced each other only once. In mid-May, Rakhimova was defeated by a 28-year-old rival 3:6, 5:7 in the quarterfinals of the WTA-125 tournament in Parma.
At the start of the competition in Morocco, Camilla met with American Taylor Townsend. Only two full games were played and the Russian took both. After this, the American representative refused to continue the fight due to an injury. In the second round, Rakhimova settled things with top-seeded Chinese Yuan Yue. The Celeste representative was forced to withdraw from the match with the score 0-4. The national athlete played her only full match in Rabat only in the quarterfinals of the competition. Camilla unexpectedly broke the resistance of the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7:5, 7:5.
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On the way to the head-to-head confrontation with Rakhimova, Mayar Sherif also played three matches. First, the Egyptian defeated the host of the courts, Aya El-Aouni (6-2, 6-1), and then defeated the Argentine María Carlé (6-3, 6-2) and the Spanish Sara Sorribes-Tormo (6-3). :3, 6:3).
In the next match with the representative of Egypt, Rakhimova, unfortunately, could not show anything on the court. The Russian clearly couldn’t show her tennis, perhaps due to a very difficult match the day before. Throughout the opening match, the world’s No. 109 racket only had one break point, but she couldn’t convert it. As a result, Sheriff beat his opponent 6:0 in just 28 minutes.
This semi-final was an abyss for our compatriot: she lost one match after another, made double mistakes and it seemed like she no longer believed in herself. Camilla needed a chance or even a miracle. The Egyptian’s mistake, her own action, whatever. The only thing the Russian achieved in today’s match was to win a game in the reception. Mayar Sheriff defeated Rakhimova 6-0, 6-1, she reached the third final in May 2024 and will compete for the trophy with American Python Stearns.
The Strasbourg and Rabat tournaments will end on May 25. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
