¸Liudmila Samsonova wins 2022 Citi Open over Kaia Kanepi

An unexpected but worthy final happened today in Washington with Liudmila Samsonova beating Kaia Kanepi 4-6 6-3 6-3 for the trophy.

It was a heated clash between two players who hit the ball extremely hard and we saw plenty of that. Kanepi has been hitting the ball very cleanly the entire week while Samsonova battled hard as she always does. Both dismantled their opponents in the semi-final to set up a worthy final.

The first set went largely as expected. Both served well which allowed them to keep their service games rather short and without any complications. Towards the end of the match, Kanepi looked a bit sharper and when given a chance at 5-4 the Estonian took it 6-4.

The 2nd set featured a significant step up from Samsonova who played much better. Kanepi played about the same but she had very few answers when Samsonova started risking it more. The Russian attacked relentlessly and found great success with it breaking her opponent twice for the 6-3 finish.

The final set was quite similar to the first one as both played really well. Samsonova was particularly impressive not dropping a single point behind her first serve the entire set. In the first one, Kanepi found success late but this time around it was Samsonova. The Russian was better in the final set and better overall getting the win in the end 6-3.