Liudmila Samsonova and Mccartney Kessler will clash against each other in the 2^nd round of the Ningbo Open for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Thursday at 1:00 pm on CENTER COURT. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Liudmila Samsonova who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Liudmila Samsonova is the pick to win this match.
Liudmila Samsonova -> 1.77
Mccartney Kessler -> 2.04

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Prediction and head to head Liudmila Samsonova vs. Mccartney Kessler

There is no head to head record between Liudmila Samsonova and Mccartney Kessler since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Liudmila Samsonova

Ranked no. 18, Samsonova got to the 2^nd round after defeating Hanyu Guo 6-2 6-4.

In the 1^st round, Ludmilla had a good straight sets win against Guo (6-2 6-4). During the match, Samsonova scored 76 points vs Guo’s 68. The Russian was quite aggressive to blast 19 winners.

Talking about the service games, Samsonova struck 6 aces and she committed only 7 double faults. Liudmila Samsonova lost the serve 3 times and she saved 8 break points. Furthermore, Samsonova put 45% of her first serves in, winning 58% (19/33) of the points behind her 1st serve and 49% (20/41) on the 2nd serve. Ludmilla broke Guo 6 times after converting 55% of her break points (6/11).

Samsonova has a solid match record in the last 10 years having won 62% of her matches (324-197). 15-14 on hard in 2025. In connection with her performance on the same surface of this competition, Samsonova has a composed 125-83 win-loss record in the last years on hard.

Samsonova’s best result of the season was getting to the final in Strasbourg.

The Russian has an overall 30-22 win-loss record in 2025, 15-14 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in Ningbo

Samsonova has never competed in this tournament before.

Mccartney Kessler

Ranked no. 33, Mccartney reached the 2^nd round after beating Sofia Kenin 6-1 6-0.

In the 1^st round, Kessler had a good straight sets win against Kenin (6-1 6-0). During the match Kessler scored 54 points vs Kenin’s 24. Kessler was quite aggressive to blast 22 winners.

About the serving games, Kessler managed to score 5 aces and she committed only 4 double faults. Mccartney Kessler was pretty effective on serve to win 81% (22/27) of her 1st serve and 56% (10/18) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. Mccartney was clinical in her return game without wasting any break point and break Kenin 5 times.

Her best result of the season was conquering the title in Hobart where she overcame Elise Mertens in the final 6-4 3-6 6-0 and in Nottingham where she beat Dayana Yastremska in the final 6-4 7-5.

The American has an aggregate 35-22 win-loss record in 2025, 25-14 on hard (See FULL STATS).

H2H Performance in the tournament

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Samsonova	Kessler
Match played	1	1
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	18	13
Pts	76-68	54-24
Total Points	144	78
Winners	19	22
%Winners	25%	41%

Both Samsonova and Kessler played 1 match. Both players have not conceded a single set in this event so far. Talking about their workload, Samsonova and Kessler have played the same amount of sets 2. However, Samsonova played 5 games more than Kessler. The Russian scored 19 winners (25% of the total points). On the other side, Kessler bagged 22 winners (41%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Samsonova	Kessler
Aces	6	5
Avg per match	6	5
1st in	33/74	27/45
%1st in	45%	60%
1st pts	19/33	22/27
%1st pts	58%	81%
2nd pts	20/41	10/18
%2nd pts	49%	56%

Samsonova fired 6 aces . Kessler struck 5 aces . Samsonova won 58% points behind her first serve. She pretty solid on her second serve to win 49% of the points. On the other side, Kessler won 81% of the points on her first serve. She had a solid display on her second serve to win 56% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Samsonova	Kessler
Won	6	5
Converted	6/11	5/5
% Converted	55%	100%
Conceded	11	3
Saved	8	3
% Saved	73%	100%
Times Broken	3	0

Samsonova broke her opponent 6 times with a 55% conversion rate. The Russian surrendered her serve 3 times and she saved 73% of the break points that she conceded. Mccartney broke her opponent 5 times with a 100% conversion rate. Mccartney was rock solid on her serve as she has never conceded a single service game after saving 3 break points.

Samsonova
	R1 Guo	Total
Score	6-2 6-4
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	18	18
pts	76-68	76-68
Total points	144	144
Winners	19	19
%Winners	25%	25%
SERVE
Aces	6	6
Double Faults	7	7
1st in	33/74	33/74
% 1st in	45%	45%
1st pts	19/33	19/33
% 1st pts	58%	58%
2nd pts	20/41	20/41
% 2nd pts	49%	49%
Breaks
Won	6	6
Converted	6/11	6/11
Converted %	55%	55%
Conceded	11	11
Saved	8/11	8
Saved %	73%	73%
Times Broken	3	3

Kessler
	R1 Kenin	Total
Score	6-1 6-0
Tot Set	2	2
Tot Games	13	13
pts	54-24	54-24
Total points	78	78
Winners	22	22
%Winners	41%	41%
SERVE
Aces	5	5
Double Faults	4	4
1st in	27/45	27/45
% 1st in	60%	60%
1st pts	22/27	22/27
% 1st pts	81%	81%
2nd pts	10/18	10/18
% 2nd pts	56%	56%
Breaks
Won	5	5
Converted	5/5	5/5
Converted %	100%	100%
Conceded	3	3
Saved	3/3	3
Saved %	100%	100%
Times Broken	0	0

Tennis Scores in Ningbo

• Ajla TomljanovicTomljanovic – Zeynep SonmezSonmez (7-6⁶ 6-3) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Diana ShnaiderShnaider – Karolina MuchovaMuchova (2-6 6-1 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Belinda BencicBencic – Yuliia StarodubtsevaStarodubtseva (5-7 6-4 7-5) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Mats MoraingMoraing – Samuele RamazzottiRamazzotti (6-4 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Ramkumar RamanathanRamanathan – Nikola CacicCacic (6-3 6-3) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Matteo ViolaViola – Ilya IvashkaIvashka (6-4 5-7 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Viktor GalovicGalovic – Pavel KotovKotov (7-6⁴ 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Lukas LackoLacko – Alen AvidzbaAvidzba (6-2 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Alessandro BegaBega – Lorenzo GiustinoGiustino (7-6⁴ 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Emilio GomezGomez – Thiago Seyboth WildSeyboth Wild (6-4 3-4 ret.) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Sergiy StakhovskyStakhovsky – Illya MarchenkoMarchenko (7-6⁴ 3-6 7-5) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Raul BrancaccioBrancaccio – Adrian Menendez-MaceirasMenendez-Maceiras (4-6 6-3 6-3) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Kenny de Schepperde Schepper – Evgeny DonskoyDonskoy (6-3 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Roberto MarcoraMarcora – Mirza BasicBasic (6-3 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Jurij RodionovRodionov – Stefano NapolitanoNapolitano (6-4 6-3) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Yosuke WatanukiWatanuki – Enrique Lopez-PerezLopez-Perez (6-2 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Andrea VavassoriVavassori – Filippo BaldiBaldi (6-3 6-7⁶ 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Matthias BachingerBachinger – Zhizhen ZhangZhang (6-1 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Egor GerasimovGerasimov – Marc-Andrea HueslerHuesler (7-5 7-6⁵) – Stats, scores, rankings

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Ekaterina AlexandrovaAlexandrova – Yue YuanYuan (1-1) – H2H and prediction
• Mccartney KesslerKessler – Ludmilla SamsonovaSamsonova (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Dayana YastremskaYastremska – Elena RybakinaRybakina (0-2) – H2H and prediction
• Veronika KudermetovaKudermetova – Jasmine PaoliniPaolini (3-2) – H2H and prediction