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Jelena Ostapenko earned an easy victory, her first of the season, at the Australian Open on Tuesday. The Latvian rushed early before holding back qualifier Ludmilla Samsonova 6-1, 6-4 on Court 5 at Melbourne Park. The win gave the 22-year-old a reason to be happy after dealing with a tough start to 2020.
The two met for the first time, with the Russian making her first main draw appearance. While she fought through competition, her Latvian opponent battled back unstoppable emotions. The personal loss that she suffered kept her away from the action but she arrived in Australia ready to make a strong start to her 2020 season.
A test of skills occurred in the first game where Samsonova challenged the Latvian to overcome a 40-15 deficit. The former French Open champion pulled off the feat, getting into a contest on deuce that spanned six breaks before holding the serve. She took the next two games before the qualifier got on the board. It was the lone victory that would stand for Samsonova as Ostapenko carried plenty of confidence and strength to get through the opening set in 35 minutes.
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The second was a tug of war with each player putting their best on the court. Both Ostapenko and Samsonova scored serve to love. They continued holds of serve through eight games until a key break for the Latvian arrived in the ninth, coming back from 0-40 to lead 5-4. With the service in hand, the 22-year-old made good of her final serve of the day to reach triple match point and put Samsonova away in 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Ostapenko managed to keep the double faults at a minimum committing only three in the match while her opponent faulted many times on the second serve and returns. The Russian was outscored 68-47 and committed 24 unforced errors that gave Ostapenko chances to run away with the match. With the second round achieved, she'll go against Belinda Bencic, who managed a straight-sets win on the day.
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