Russian tennis player Liudmila Samsonova won the title at the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo with a prize fund of 757,900 USD. In the final match, Liudmila Samsonova prevailed over the WTA No 36 Qinwen Zheng (China) by 2-0 (7:5, 7:5) in 2:07 hours of play.
The Russian took advantage of her first break opportunity to take a 6-5 lead, then held serve at 15 to take the set.
The second set was equal again, and Liudmila Samsonova took her rival’s serve for 3:2, but Qinwen Zheng reacted immediately and equalized for 3:3. The outcome came again in the eleventh game of this set as well. The Russian got an opportunity, which she took advantage of and won 6:5. Then she was convincing and won her serve at zero, with which she grabbed the title in Tokyo.
Chinese tennis player Qingwen Zheng climbed from 156th place in the world’s ranking at this time last year to 36th place. The 19-year-old Asian player played hard but fell behind in the decisive moments.
On her way to the title, Liudmila Samsonova defeated two more Chinese players – Wang Xinyu and Zhang Shuai, as well as two top-seeds – 8th-seeded Elena Rybakina and 3rd-seeded Garbine Muguruza.
