Liudmila Samsonova

Liudmila Samsonova was born above the Arctic Circle in Olenegorsk, Russia, but the player is a product of Italy. Her family moved south when she was one, and she came up at Riccardo Piatti's academy near San Remo after the local federation helped fund her development. She competed under the Italian flag through 2018 before switching to Russia — a decision she has tied to the heavier scrutiny that comes with representing a tennis-mad country. The bilingual, first-strike upbringing left her fluent in Italian, Russian, and English.

The game is power, front to back. At six feet tall and right-handed, Samsonova hits flat and early off both wings, taking time away with a heavy serve and a forehand built to end points inside three shots. The "boom-boom" label fits: when the rhythm is there, few on tour generate cleaner pace. The trade-off is variance — the same go-for-broke baseline game that produces blowout wins can tip into stretches of unforced errors, and her movement and net play lag her ball-striking.

Her breakthrough came in 2021, when she came through qualifying to win Berlin on grass, beating a string of top opponents for a maiden title. She has since stacked WTA titles and climbed to a career-high inside the top 12, with her best Grand Slam runs coming on the hard courts that reward her flat power. On her day she has troubled the elite — the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Jessica Pegula — and she remains a dangerous, unseeded-or-not draw at events like the US Open and Cincinnati Open.

Now ranked No. 35, Samsonova spends 2026 trying to climb back toward the seeding line, with the hard-court swings through Dubai and the North American masters her clearest windows to convert ball-striking into points.