Elena Rybakina vs Liudmila Samsonova 2023 China Open Beijing - Preview & Prediction

07/10/2023 05:45 | by Evita Mueller

Elena Rybakina is playing some amazing tennis right now and she has scores to settle with Liudmila Samsonova.

Yes, it's been an amazing week for Elena Rybakina at the 2023 China Open in Beijing particularly when you consider that she nearly lost to Mirra Andreeva a couple of days ago. She looked helpless in that match but then bounced back amazingly to win the match in three sets.

She bested Aryna Sabalenka as well, which was an impressive display and is now looking to do the same against Liudmila Samsonova. A place in the final is at stake, so it's a big match, but Rybakina is facing a player she's never beaten before.

Head-to-head:

That in itself is not a huge problem if it's only one match but three matches are a good enough sample size to possibly indicate a matchup problem. They first played in 2021 in Montreal and Samsonova won that match in three sets.

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Later that year they faced each other in Tokyo as well and that was a loss as well, this time in two sets. They recently played in Canada again and once again it was Samsonova who won; again in three sets.

Prediction:

So what's the issue? It's tough to say because, stylistically, Samsonova doesn't really play that much differently than some other players. She has a pretty good serve and really powerful baseline play but is very streaky. She's more streaky than Rybakina but equally dangerous on her best day.

Most of these matches came down to Samsonova outplaying her from the baseline, which makes this very hard to predict. The better player from the baseline will win again, but we don't know which player is more likely to do that. Backing Rybakina is the safer play because she's the better player but it's hard ignoring that 0-3.

Prediction: Elena Rybakina to win in two sets.

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