Liudmila Samsonova and Sloane Stephens meet Friday in the third round of the 2021 tennis Wimbledon.
Liudmila Samsonova is coming off a three sets win over Jessica Pegula that took 28 games to decide. In the victory, Samsonova won 81 percent of her first serve points and 45 percent of her second serve points. Samsonova won 64 percent of her total service points and converted on three of her 10 break points. Samsonova won a match despite struggling mightily with her second serve and hitting 51 unforced errors. It’s fair to say Samsonova will have to play much cleaner if she has a chance here. Samsonova looks to make the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time in her career. Samsonova has won nine straight matches on grass court.
Sloane Stephens is coming off a straight sets win over Kristie Ahn that took 21 games to decide. In the victory, Stephens won 59 percent of her first serve points and 56 percent of her second serve points. Stephens won 58 percent of her total service points and converted on six of her 12 break points. Stephens saved eight of her 11 break points, but she also had issues with her serve and had 28 unforced errors. Stephens has to be sharper if she’s going to make a really deep run. Stephens looks to make the fourth round of a grand slam for the fourth time since 2019. Stephens has won four of her last five matches on grass court.
Samsonova won the only match against Stephens, which came in 2020 Brisbane. The match was decided in three sets and 27 games.
You can make a case for either of these players and neither looked great in their second round victory. Samsonova should probably be favored given her success on grass this year, but Stephens is the better overall player with a higher upside, and she can dictate the pace of a lot of these points.
There’s value with Stephens and the plus money.
AUTHOR: Randy Chambers
