Coco Gauff vs Liudmila Samsonova Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Washington Citi Open

Prediction published on 05/08/2023, 05:27  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/08/2023 at 06:30 in Tennis Predictions

Liudmila Samsonova is the lowest remaining seed left in the Mubadala Citi DC Open. However, the eighth seed is the defending champion and takes on third seeded Coco Gauff in the last four. The winner of this match will face either top seeded Jessica Pegula or fourth seeded Maria Sakkari. Samsonova won this outdoor hard court tournament last year beating Kaia Kanepi in the final. Two more hard court titles have been won since then and this year saw her lose to Belinda Bencic in the Abu Dhabi final. Samsonova began this tournament ranked 18th but a win here will take her up to 17th, In the Live WTA Race, the Russian is up to 27th place. This is her first tournament since losing in the first round at Wimbledon and started with a 16-16 record for 2023. Back in Washington, the 24-year-old has played three matches (all against unseeded opponents) and won them all in straight sets for the loss of 14 games. To reach the final Samsonova has to beat Coco Gauff for the first time. Two previous matches have been lost, both in three sets with Gauff coming from behind to win in each match. Only the first meeting was on a hard court, that was four years ago.

Coco Gauff is the world number seven and three places higher than that in the doubles rankings. If the American was to win this semi-final, she could meet her doubles partner Jessica Pegula in the final. Gauff seems to have been around for ages but is still only 19 and is eighth in the Live WTA Race. Gauff is bidding to win her second WTA singles title of the year. Her one success was right at the start of the year when winning a hard court title in Auckland, New Zealand. Her only other hard court title was in Linz four years ago when she beat Samsonova in the qualifying rounds. Her form has been a bit inconsistent this year and this is her first tournament since a first round loss at Wimbledon. Good form has been shown this week though with wins over Hailey Baptiste and then losing just three games when knocking out sixth seeded Belinda Bencic.