Fifteen months of waiting
Berlin, June 2025. That was the last time Liudmila Samsonova saw a semifinal from the inside. Three quarterfinal losses this season, and each time she stalled at exactly the same point.
Thursday night she finally got through it. 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 against Marta Kostyuk, the top seed at the Guadalajara Open. The 27-year-old Russian lost the first set, soaked up the pace, and slowly took the match away.
The decider turned on a single break. 7-5 tells you how narrow the margin was.
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Kostyuk went out having barely played
That is the strange part of the Ukrainian’s week in Mexico. Kostyuk, 24, played her first match of the tournament in the quarterfinals. A first-round bye, then a walkover in round two when Taylor Townsend pulled out with a medical emergency requiring surgery. The American gave no further detail on her condition.
Two rounds without striking a ball, then an exit. Match sharpness does not arrive on its own.
Samsonova meets an American in the last four. Peyton Stearns or Sloane Stephens, who played their quarterfinal overnight Thursday into Friday.
The other half of the draw has produced a proper matchup
Iva Jovic is defending her title down there and has barely been troubled. The second seed brushed aside Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-2, 6-1. Spain’s Cristina Bucsa beat Sara Bejlek 6-0, 6-4 on the other side. A bagel handed to the third seed takes most of the upset talk out of it.
Over at the SP Open in Sao Paulo, American Mary Stoiana reached the first WTA quarterfinal of her career, seeing off Czech Dominika Salkova 7-6 (5), 6-1. She is 23, ranked 116th, and won the NCAA team title with Texas A&M in 2024. Paula Badosa is next, having come through a scrappy one against Argentina’s Jazmin Ortenzi, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
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