A Czech champion

who's missing that thrill!

Vondroušová, our Wimbledon champion, spent a good part of the 2025 season in the treatment room, though she still found the time to ship a title in Berlin between two injuries. Honestly, I think she’s one of the rare players who, when she’s at 100%, can beat absolutely anyone. She’s got everything, plain and simple. Probably the best lefty on the WTA Tour. What she mainly lacks is a bit of physical continuity to see her back in the top 10 for good.

A roaring start to the season with a marathon match against the infamous Frech, capable of the worst as well as the best, and a loss after 3h25 and 38 games. The Pole has this ability to be extremely sticky, never giving away any freebies, and is never easy to handle. I totally understand that she ended up cracking in the final tie-break.

Samsonova, for her part, leans on an extremely powerful serve, often close to 170 km/h, and frequently hits her second serves like first serves. Her tennis is sharp, aggressive, but also comes with a non-negligible amount of unforced errors. Her record against left-handers is 50% wins over 22 matches, which is somewhere between standard and decent. Vondroušová has never lost a set on hard court against the Russian and has exactly the kind of game to absorb this type of player. On the contrary, up against such a technical and complete brand of tennis, Samsonova’s power, which is her best weapon, can quickly turn into a liability and push her out of her usual patterns. The straight-sets 2–0 loss to Pegula, another very complete player, is a good illustration of that.