Samsonova doubles down to lead RTF to Billie Jean King Cup final

She may be the youngest on the team and is making her Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas debut this week in Prague, but Liudmila Samsonova proved she is just as valuable as the more experienced players on her squad as she triumphed in both singles and doubles to help guide Russian Tennis Federation to a semi-final victory over USA on Friday. 

Playing singles for the first time in the competition, the 22-year-old scored the opening point for RTF with a hard-fought 1-6 6-4 6-3 success over former US Open champion Sloane Stephens. 

Danielle Collins then levelled the tie for the Americans, squeezing past top Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a two-hour 42-minute battle 6-7(9) 7-6(2) 6-2 to force a deciding doubles clash. 

Samsonova then returned to the court, joining forces with Veronika Kudermetova to defeat Shelby Rogers and Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 6-3 and sending RTF into their 12th Billie Jean King Cup final, and first since 2015. 

RTF, who are bidding for a fifth title in the competition, now await the winner of the evening showdown between Switzerland and Australia. 

“I can't even describe what it feels like. Today is one of the most exciting and important days of my entire life! We are in the Final of BJK Cup. Proud and overjoyed,” tweeted an elated Samsonova after the win. 

Andreev’s bold choice

RTF captain Igor Andreev fielded three different singles line-ups in as many ties this week and his decision to field Samsonova in singles for the first time paid off. 

Samsonova was the last to arrive to Prague after contesting the semi-finals at the WTA event in Courmayeur last Friday but quickly found her footing, thanks to the help of her team-mates. 

“I’m trying to learn a lot from them, because I’m the youngest, I don’t have so much experience. Of course Nastia [Pavlyuchenkova] is the boss of the team and I’m trying to learn a lot from her,” said Samsonova, who started the season ranked 127 in the world and is now up to a career-high No. 40. 

“Every moment is important.”

The Russian defeated Stephens in their two previous meetings, on hard courts in Brisbane last year and in the Wimbledon third round earlier this season. 

Stephens, who was a champion with USA in 2017 and entered the tie on Friday carrying a five-match winning streak in the competition, made a clinical start to her showdown with Samsonova, breaking three times on her way to clinching the first set in 26 minutes.

Samsonova found her range in the second set, relying on her big serve and aggressive game to move Stephens around the court. 

She saved two break points at 2-3, which ultimately proved to be a crucial turning point for the Russian. 

Samsonova found a tiny opening in the ninth game and did not hesitate to pounce, rushing the net to break the Stephens serve for a 5-4 advantage. A freak net cord incident in that game dramatically changed the direction of the ball, and possibly the match, allowing Samsonova to find an easy put-away up at the net. 

She then closed out the set comfortably to force a decider. 

The pair exchanged breaks at the start of the third set but it was Samsonova who managed to surge ahead 4-2, pulling off some outrageous volleys en route. Stephens kept fighting but she only delayed the inevitable, as Samsonova secured victory in just under two hours. 

“She was playing so well today, I had to find the key against her today, to push her. Because at the beginning I was running too much and I had to find the key to start to play more aggressively against her,” said Samsonova of Stephens. 

“It means too much to me [to be part of this group]. It was a dream for me to play for the national team and it happened this year and I’m super happy.”

Collins finds a way

Next on Centre Court, world No. 12 Pavlyuchenkova lost her first match of the week as Collins recovered from a slow start to make it three wins from three singles matches contested in Prague. 

In the opening set, Collins wiped a double-break deficit, saving three set points on her way to levelling for 5-5. In the tiebreak, the American saved four more set points and squandered one of her own before Pavlyuchenkova finally closed out the 67-minute opening set on her seventh opportunity. 

Breaks were traded early in the second set, which fittingly went to a tiebreak. Collins sailed to a 6-1 lead in the breaker and evened up the match on her second chance to take the contest into a decider.  

Fatigue seemed to be catching up with Pavlyuchenkova, who had already played two taxing three-setters during the group stage. The 30-year-old had one break point in the first game of the final set but couldn’t convert. She went on to lose her serve twice as Collins kept USA’s chances alive in the tie. 

“I felt a little bit more pressure playing down, that I needed to figure out a way to win and it’s tough,” said the 30th-ranked Collins. 

“I probably wasn’t the favourite player on paper with our comparison in rankings and the year that she’s had but I’ve also been playing some good tennis, so I had to just trust my abilities and go for it. 

“I wanted to keep the team alive, when you’re playing on a team, you have even more motivation to fight as hard as you can, and try to find a way to win when things aren’t working for you.”

High praise for Liudmila

Between Samsonova’s huge serves and soft hands at the net, and Kudermetova’s punishing groundstrokes from the back of the court, the Russians were in control throughout most of their doubles contest and it took them just 74 minutes to book RTF’s ticket to the final. 

Pavlyuchenkova paid tribute to Samsonova and the important role she played in Friday’s action. 

“She’s one of the nicest girls I’ve met so far on tour and I’m so happy and honoured and proud that she’s on our team,” said Pavlyuchenkova, or ‘The Boss’, as Samsonova referred to her earlier in the day.  

“I think she has a bright future if she continues this way and she impressed me today because I wasn’t sure actually about the decision of putting her – nothing to do with her game, she has an amazing game, but because when you have your debut in this kind of format and competition it’s completely different and it’s so mental, so I wasn’t sure how she would handle it and she did just perfect. I’m happy she’s here.”

Missed opportunities

USA captain Kathy Rinaldi rued her team’s missed chances but reflects positively on their week in the Czech capital. The Americans own 18 Billie Jean King Cup titles and were trying to reach the final for a record 31st time. 

“I think there’s a lot of positives to take from this week,” said Rinaldi. 

“I think we had a great week coming into the competition. Great team, great team-mates, I think that’s always a positive. 

“We’ve had some great matches, some great battles we got through. We lost a tough one today, had our opportunities and credit to our opponents, they really stepped up. 

“So many positives, these are the weeks that we cherish, weeks that we’ll never forget. Obviously it’s very disappointing, the girls are all competitors and they wanted to win that. We felt we had some chances to do that. We had a rookie on the team and I think it was a great experience for her.”