No.15 seed Liudmila Samsonova pulled off a gritty victory over former World No.1 Naomi Osaka in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday, prevailing 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 and posting her first match-win since February.

After controlling the first set, Samsonova held off a surging Osaka in the three-set clash to collect the 2-hour and 22-minute victory.

"I'm incredibly happy," Samsonova said, after her win. "I cannot believe that I won this match. I'm coming from not an easy period where I've lost some matches. And boy, it was crazy today, because I was 6-2, 4-2 up. And then, of course, [Osaka] played amazing."

Next up: Samsonova clinches a spot in the Madrid third round for the second straight year, and she is a win away from matching her Round-of-16 run from 2023.

To defend all of her ranking points from last year's edition, Samsonova will need to beat her fellow Top 20 player Madison Keys in the third round.

No.18 seed Keys battled into the third round with a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) victory over three-time Madrid quarterfinalist Irina-Camelia Begu on Thursday. Keys leads the head-to-head with Samsonova by 2-1, but this will be their first meeting on clay.

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Losing streak snapped: Samsonova came into Madrid on a four-match losing streak, including a three-set loss to Anastasia Potapova in her first clay-court match of 2024 at Stuttgart last week.

One of those four consecutive losses had been to Osaka, who beat Samsonova in straight sets in the second round of Indian Wells last month, in their lone previous meeting. That match was Osaka's first Top 20 win of her comeback from maternity leave, which started in the first week of this year.

On the clay of Madrid, Samsonova was able to avenge her Indian Wells loss, but by an extremely narrow margin over Osaka.

"I think I was playing on a higher level here," Samsonova said, comparing Thursday's match to their encounter in Indian Wells. "I was trying to move her. And then, of course, she's always a champion. It's not easy."

Despite the close scoreline, Samsonova fired 36 winners to Osaka's 22, and she only had four more unforced errors than four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka.

Match moments: On Thursday, Samsonova used those winners to build a commanding 6-2, 4-2 lead.

Osaka, however, grinded out a tough game to pull back on serve at 4-4. Osaka played another strong return game to earn three set points at 5-4, and the match leveled after Samsonova double faulted to cede the second set.

The third set featured stellar drop shots by Samsonova, along with her typical heavy groundstrokes, but Osaka continued to find well-timed serves to evade trouble. Osaka saved break points in three of her first five service games of the set, as the pair reached a 5-5 deadlock.

But another drop shot winner gave Samsonova break point in that game, which she converted for 6-5 after an Osaka backhand flew long. Facing her first win in two months, Samsonova was unfazed when serving for the match, firing back-to-back aces to wrap up proceedings.