Japan's Himeno Sakatsume, the seventh seed, defeated third seed Simona Waltert of Switzerland 5-7 6-4 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the hard-court WTA 125 tournament in Samsun. The event has a prize fund of $115,000. The win sends Sakatsume into the semifinals.
The set that changed everything
Waltert got off to the better start, taking the first set 7-5. Sakatsume leveled the match in the second, winning it 6-4. The Japanese player dominated the deciding set, winning it 6-0 as the Swiss player failed to take a single game. Sakatsume won the match 2:1 in sets.
The players took different routes to the quarterfinals. Sakatsume beat Dominika Salkova 6-1 6-4 in the first round, then defeated Victoria Hruncakova 7-5 6-2. She had not dropped a set before facing Waltert, but lost the first one here. The Swiss player started the tournament with wins over Melisa Ercan (6-2 6-2) and Linda Klimovicova (6-3 6-2), also in straight sets.
According to rank.tennis, Waltert is ranked 109th with 705 points, while Sakatsume is 115th with 665 points. According to api.tennis, Sakatsume leads their head-to-head 2:0, with both matches played in 2026. She won the other match 6-4 6-4.