diff --git a/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer.go b/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer.go
index e813fc7d93..3920349832 100644
--- a/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer.go
+++ b/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer.go
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ func (t *oteltracer) Start(ctx context.Context, spanName string, opts ...oteltra
 			// if the span doesn't originate from the Datadog tracer,
 			// use SpanContextW3C implementation struct to pass span context information
 			ddopts = append(ddopts, tracer.ChildOf(tracer.FromGenericCtx(&otelCtxToDDCtx{sctx})))
+			if sctx.IsSampled() {
+				ddopts = append(ddopts, tracer.Tag(ext.ManualKeep, true))
+			}
 		}
 	}
 	if t := ssConfig.Timestamp(); !t.IsZero() {
diff --git a/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer_test.go b/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer_test.go
index 98de1eb5f2..6345411b4f 100644
--- a/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer_test.go
+++ b/ddtrace/opentelemetry/tracer_test.go
@@ -121,6 +121,31 @@ func TestSpanContext(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(true, sctx.IsRemote())
 }
 
+func TestSamplingDecision(t *testing.T) {
+	assert := assert.New(t)
+	tp := NewTracerProvider(
+		tracer.WithSamplingRules([]tracer.SamplingRule{
+			{Rate: 0}, // This should be applied only when a brand new root span is started and should be ignored for a non-root span
+		}),
+	)
+	defer tp.Shutdown()
+	otel.SetTracerProvider(tp)
+	tr := otel.Tracer("")
+
+	parentSpanContext := oteltrace.NewSpanContext(oteltrace.SpanContextConfig{
+		TraceID:    oteltrace.TraceID{0xAB},
+		SpanID:     oteltrace.SpanID{0x01},
+		TraceFlags: oteltrace.FlagsSampled, // the parent span is sampled, so its child spans should be sampled too
+	})
+	ctx := oteltrace.ContextWithSpanContext(context.Background(), parentSpanContext)
+	_, span := tr.Start(ctx, "test")
+	span.End()
+
+	childSpanContext := span.SpanContext()
+	assert.Equal(parentSpanContext.TraceID(), childSpanContext.TraceID())
+	assert.True(childSpanContext.IsSampled(), "parent span is sampled, but child span is not sampled")
+}
+
 func TestForceFlush(t *testing.T) {
 	const (
 		UNSET = iota