Karolina Muchova beat Liudmila Samsonova in the round of 32 at the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the round of 16. The match was played on hard court, with the tournament's prize fund totaling $9.4 million.
A turnaround after the opening set
The first set went to Samsonova, seeded 29th. After that, Muchova found her rhythm and took the next two sets off the Russian. The margin in the second set was slim (6-4), while the decider was more comfortable (6-2). The match wrapped up in three sets, just like Samsonova's previous outing in Beijing, where she beat Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the second round.
Muchova, the seventh seed, played her second match in Beijing. In the round of 64 she got past Katie Boulter 7-6(3), 6-1. According to rank.tennis, the Czech sits 8th in the rankings with 4678 points. Samsonova is 42nd with 1229 points.
The head-to-head record, according to api.tennis, now also favors Muchova: two wins in two matches. In 2019 she won 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, and this match was the second in their series. In both meetings Samsonova managed to take one set but could not do more than that.