CZECH wunderkind Laura Samson wasted no time announcing herself on the big stage against a quality opponent, shocking her far more experienced compatriot Katerina Siniakova in front of home fans at the Prague Open overnight.

Samson – who turned 16 in March – is a former junior girls number one, and shortened her surname this year from Samsonova to a gender neutral form and also be distinguished from Russian Liudmila Samsonova on Tour.

Coming off a Roland Garros junior girls singles final, Samson earned a wildcard in Prague and quickly racked past Croatian qualifier Tara Wurth 6-0 6-2 in 73 minutes. She won 17 of 21 points (81 per cent) off her first serve that day, and broke six times to one during the dominant performance out on Court 12.

However her Round of 16 opponent would be far tougher in 38th ranked Siniakova who is the fifth highest ranked Czech in the world. The second seed showed her experience early – having only just staggered through her first round match – to win the opening set 6-1.

After the early disappointment, Samson started to find more rhythm in her play and was able to take control at the net. After winning just 10 points on serve in the first set, Samson lifted that up to 27 in the second, winning 65 per cent of her first serve points and outplaying Siniakova who produced a whopping seven double faults to be her own worst enemy.

After being 5-5, Samson would go on to serve out the match and break her opponent in the first game of the deciding set. A quick reply from Siniakova and the Czech went up a double break at 3-1 looking set to cruise to victory. Samson had other ideas though, finding her form yet again and winning the last five games of the match to seal a 1-6 7-5 6-3 victory in two hours and 16 minutes.

Samson finished with two more winners than Siniakova (25-23), though the fact Siniakova served 11 double faults among 56 unforced errors – 46 of which came in the last two sets – was the reason for her downfall. Humbly, the 16-year-old said she was shocked to have won the match.

“I’m extremely surprised,” Samson said post-match. “I didn’t go into it as favourite. I’m so proud of myself and I hope I will continue to play like this. As I was going into the second set I thought, ‘I have nothing to lose, I didn’t play good in the first set.’ I’m not really sure when [I thought I could win], I just believed myself in the third set.”

After playing her first Top 200 opponent and getting her first Top 50 win, Samson will now set her attention on Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva, a 21-year-old former Top 10 junior. Selekhmeteva easily disposed of Liechtenstein lucky loser Kathinka Von Deichmann 6-1 -2. The Russian is in strong form, having won an ITF W75 even in Rome a fortnight earlier.

In other results, top seed and fellow Czech Linda Noskova moved through to the quarter finals after just 41 minutes when in-form German Eva Lys was forced to retire. A couple of Polish hopes in Magdalena Frech and Magda Linette both advanced through to the last eight, as did Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova and Germany’s Ella Seidel.

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Over in Romanian, Russian rising talents Mirra Andreeva and Elina Avanesyan both advanced through to the quarter finals with respective wins over Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Petra Martic. Avanesyan has a good chance to go deep in the tournament if she can get past third seed Jaqueline Cristian.

The Romanian needed three hours and two minutes to shake off compatriot and wildcard Elena-Gabriela Ruse on Center Court in front of home fans, while the epic contest was balanced out by Serbian Olga Danilovic 67-minute demolition of another Romanian in Anca Todoni, 6-1 6-1.

French duo Chloe Paquet and qualifier Selena Janicijevic will face off for a spot in the semi-finals after both won their Round of 16 contests, with Croatian lucky loser Lea Boskovic and Hungarian Anna Bondar the other winners on day three of the tournament.