Samso back again?

Liudmila Samsonova is 27 years old, right-handed, Russian, world No. 21, with five WTA titles in her career, including two on grass and one WTA 500 in Berlin. In 2026, she looks unrecognizable on paper: 3 wins and 7 losses in her last ten matches, a player searching for her tennis and only finding it in flashes. But there is one number that changes everything in this story: clay WTA 52 weeks, 9 wins and 6 losses, 60%. The surface in Madrid is precisely the one where Samsonova has performed best over the past twelve months, and her serve at 667 meters of altitude remains a weapon, even if diminished compared to her peak level.

Opposite her, Janice Tjen is one of the most endearing stories on tour in 2026. Indonesian from Jakarta, 23 years old, a former college player at Pepperdine, winner in Chennai in 2025, the first player from her country to lift a WTA trophy in 23 years. She arrives in Madrid on the back of five consecutive wins, with a fresh body, sharp timing, and a clean first-round victory over Charaeva.

The problem is that five straight wins in qualifying and early rounds are not the kind of currency you trade for a top-20 player on clay in a WTA 1000. Tjen has never beaten a top-20 player in three attempts, and Samsonova had already crushed her 6–2 6–2 in Abu Dhabi in February. Her clay record at WTA level comes down to one win and one loss, an almost non-existent sample size. A struggling Samsonova is still Samsonova on a surface that suits her, with a serve that does damage at altitude and a main-draw experience that Tjen simply does not have yet.