Canadian Bianca Andreescu lost in her first final in two years on the WTA Tour on Sunday, while her compatriot Gabriela Dabrowski won a 16th career doubles title.
Andreescu surrendered to second seed Liudmila Samsonova in the final of the grass-court tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Samsonova won 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 after a duel that lasted 2 hours 34 minutes.
This is Samsonova’s fifth career singles title.
For her part, Andreescu was participating in a first final since the grass-court tournament in Bad Homburg in 2022. She was aiming for a first title since her triumph at the US Open in 2019.
Andreescu, who celebrated her 24th birthday on Sunday, began the week ranked 228th in the world. She was competing in a second tournament after a nine-month absence due to a back injury.
Against Samsonova, she was particularly vulnerable on her second service ball. Andreescu won just 37.5% of the points contested on her second serve. She was the victim of five service breaks during the match.
Samsonova was a little more effective, although Andreescu managed to break her serve four times. She notably won 56.5% of the points contested on her second serve, which helped her since she placed only 54.9% of her first serves in play.
At the Nottingham grass court tournament, Dabrowski and her New Zealand playing partner Erin Routliffe won the women’s doubles title.
They defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart and France’s Diane Parry 5-7, 6-3 and 11-9 in the super tiebreaker.
This is Dabrowski’s third alongside Routliffe. They were the favorites of the tournament.
