Monday at the Livesport Prague Open was a day of disparate milestones as 16-year-old Laura Samson, doubles star Ena Shibahara and Liechtenstein's Kathinka Von Deichmann all scored the first completed WTA main-draw wins of their careers.
Prague: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Samson keeps Czech conveyor belt of talent rolling
Wild card Samson became the first player born in 2008 (or later) to win a WTA main-draw match, and she did it emphatically with a 6-0, 6-2 rout of qualifier Tara Wurth. The No.634-ranked Czech teenager demonstrated impressive timing and pace off the ground in her tour-level debut, slamming 19 winners in total. She needed only 1 hour and 13 minutes to complete victory.
Samson has already made a name for herself at junior level, where she was ranked No.1 until last week. She reached the US Open girls' semifinals last year, and was the Roland Garros girls' runner-up in June. In 2024, she has also begun to transition to pro tournaments, winning three ITF W15s this year so far. Prague marks just the 11th pro event that Samson has contested.
Samson is one of four Czech players to have reached the last 16 on home soil this week. No.1 seed Linda Noskova, 19 and Dominika Salkova, 20, both advanced in straight sets over Katarina Zavatska and Zeynep Sonmez respectively. Samson will take on the most decorated of her compatriots in Prague next, in the form of Katerina Siniakova. The No.2 seed battled to a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over qualifier Louisa Chirico.
Shibahara pivots from doubles to singles
Despite falling in the final round of qualifying to Wurth, Shibahara gained entry to the main draw as a lucky loser -- and made the most of it by triumphing in the longest match of the first round 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 over Tamara Korpatsch in three hours exactly.
Shibahara has already tasted success at the highest level of tennis -- in doubles. The 26-year-old was the 2022 Roland Garros mixed doubles champion with Wesley Koolhof, the 2023 Australian Open doubles finalist with Shuko Aoyama and a 10-time doubles champion on the Hologic WTA Tour. In that discipline, she has been ranked as high as No.4.
Despite those accolades, Shibahara has ambitiously turned her attention to singles in 2024 -- with quietly successful results. Her record this year stands at 33-12, including a first ITF title at the Spring W35 in February and a runner-up showing at the Tokyo W100 in April. The Japanese player has lifted her ranking from No.543 at the start of the year to No.257 this week.
Shibahara's win over Korpatsch was her first in a main draw following four previous losses, and her second career victory over a Top 100 player. She'll climb even further, with Grand Slam qualifying territory in her sights; next in Prague, Shibahara will face 19-year-old German Ella Seidel.
Von Deichmann does it for the small states
Depending on which way you look at it, the microstate of Liechtenstein has either had no notable tennis success -- or has punched above its weight, given its population of under 40,000 and its size of just 25 kilometers long. Two Liechtensteiners have competed at WTA level. The first was Stephanie Vogt, who peaked at No.137 in February 2014 and lost both of her tour-level matches (at the 2012 London Olympic Games and Nürnberg 2016).
Vogt was followed by Kathinka Von Deichmann, who became the first Liechtensteiner to play a Grand Slam main draw when she qualified for the 2018 US Open. Her ranking peaked at No.153 in the same year. Now ranked No.241, she also entered the Prague draw as a lucky loser, and promptly upset Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-4, 6-4 in a match highlighted by Von Deichmann's absurd defensive skills.
The 30-year-old has technically won two tour-level matches before -- but both, over Laura Siegemund at Lugano 2018 and over Irina Khromacheva at Seoul 2023, ended in retirement. Von Deichmann's defeat of Schmiedlova is thus her first, and her nation's first, completed tour-level match-win. She will bid to become Liechtenstein's first ever WTA quarterfinalist against qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva in the second round.
