The Estonian, ranked 82nd in the world, had defeated Alycia Parks (U.S.) in round one, her first win since a recurrent back injury took her out of competition early on this year.

The Italian Open is a warmer for this month's French Open, but is also a top-level WTA1000 contest in its own right, and, like at the Roland Garros, is played on clay.

On Friday, Kontaveit lost her first serve, responding with a break on the very next game, and going on to tie things at two-all. However, the Russian player strung together three games in a row, and the Estonian was only able to respond with one more game victory before losing the set 6:3.

In set two, Kontaveit took an initial 3:2 lead after both players broke the other's service games, twice, but Kontaveit then lost four-in-a-row, and had to concede 6.3, once again, and with it the match.

The entire encounter at the Foro Italico lasted just over an hour-and-a-half.

Kontaveit served up one ace and committed two double faults, to Samsonova's three and one respectively, and converted two of the eight break points presented to her, compared with six out of nine for the Russian player.

Samsonova meets Donna Vekic (Croatia) in round three.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!