Liudmila Dmitriyevna Samsonova is a Russian professional tennis player.
48 Facts About Liudmila Samsonova
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Liudmila Samsonova won her first WTA Tour title at the 2021 German Open, a WTA 500 title, and has overall won four singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour.
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Liudmila Samsonova has won a total of six titles on the ITF Circuit.
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Liudmila Samsonova was born 11 November 1998 in the industrial city of Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast, Russia.
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Liudmila Samsonova's father urged her to start playing either table tennis or lawn tennis, choosing the latter.
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Liudmila Samsonova started playing tennis at the age of six, joining Riccardo Piatti's tennis academy in Sanremo after the local tennis federation helped her financially with that.
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Until 2018, Liudmila Samsonova represented Italy in professional tennis, before switching to the Russian flag.
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Liudmila Samsonova keeps practicing outside of Russia, as she is unsatisfied with the condition for professional tennis provided by the Russian Tennis Federation domestically.
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In October 2021, Liudmila Samsonova clarified she has never had an Italian citizenship and thus has never faced the option of choosing between the two flags.
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Liudmila Samsonova admitted that if her parents had stayed in Russia she would have chosen figure skating.
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Liudmila Samsonova speaks Italian as a native language and English as her second one, and her Russian is surprisingly good considering a lack of practice.
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Liudmila Samsonova reached her highest ITF junior ranking on 18 July 2016, peaking at the 65th spot on the rankings.
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In 2013, Liudmila Samsonova made her professional debut at consecutive ITF Circuit tournaments in Umag, but lost both her singles matches.
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Liudmila Samsonova caused a huge shock at the Open de Saint-Malo, a $60k event, coming through three rounds of qualifying to lift the biggest title of her career and breaking the top 200 for the first time in her career.
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Liudmila Samsonova started the year with her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, but was defeated in the second qualifying round by Karolina Muchova.
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Liudmila Samsonova received her first direct entry into a WTA Tour main draw at the Ladies Open Lausanne, but lost to lucky loser Han Xinyun in the second round.
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Liudmila Samsonova's good run continued at the WTA 125 Open de Limoges, where she reached the quarterfinals by beating top-100 players Camila Giorgi and Alize Cornet.
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Similar to 2019, Liudmila Samsonova failed to qualify for the main draw at the Qatar Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the tour to go on a hiatus for a couple of months.
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Liudmila Samsonova lost in the first round of both of the US Open and French Open to the resurgent Tsvetana Pironkova and eventual finalist Sofia Kenin respectively.
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Liudmila Samsonova ended her year with a runner-up finish at the $25k event in Reims, falling to Oceane Dodin in straight sets.
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Liudmila Samsonova began her year at the Australian Open qualifying event, which was held in Dubai due to pandemic-related reasons.
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Liudmila Samsonova beat the 30th seed, former top-30 player Lesia Tsurenko, in straight sets, to book her ticket to Melbourne for a second successive year.
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Liudmila Samsonova's run ended in the second round, in the hands of world No 14, Garbine Muguruza, in straight sets.
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Liudmila Samsonova ended her trip in Australia with another successful qualifying campaign at the Adelaide International, reaching the main draw and challenging sixth seed Martic to three sets.
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Liudmila Samsonova returned to the tour at the Miami Open, where she qualified for the main draw with consecutive wins.
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Liudmila Samsonova earned the biggest win of her career over world No 11, Kiki Bertens, after losing just three games, reaching the third round of a WTA 1000 event for the first time in her career.
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Liudmila Samsonova then began her clay-court campaign at the Charleston Open and MUSC Health Women's Open, held at the same venue in consecutive weeks.
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Liudmila Samsonova suffered early losses to Coco Gauff and Clara Tauson in both tournaments, respectively.
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Liudmila Samsonova's campaign began with a tight win over Ana Konjuh in a final-set tiebreak to qualify for the main draw, before stunning Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.
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Liudmila Samsonova then reached her first WTA 500 quarterfinal with a straight-sets defeat of compatriot Veronika Kudermetova, not facing a break point throughout the encounter.
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Liudmila Samsonova won her first main-draw match at the US Open over Katie Boulter.
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Liudmila Samsonova, seeded seventh at the Luxembourg Open, defeated Misaki Doi and Oceane Dodin to reach her first quarterfinal since Berlin.
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Liudmila Samsonova lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals, but reached another new career-high ranking after the tournament.
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Liudmila Samsonova made her main-draw debut at the Indian Wells Open, triumphing over Kateryna Kozlova in the first round, but fell to compatriot Kudermetova in the second round.
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Liudmila Samsonova lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the first round of the Kremlin Cup.
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Liudmila Samsonova ended season at the BJK Cup Finals, making her debut in the tournament but played a pivotal role in clinching the title for Russia as she went unbeaten throughout the week.
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Liudmila Samsonova partnered Veronika Kudermetova and won all six sets they contested, defeating Canada, France and the United States.
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Liudmila Samsonova began her season at the Melbourne Summer Set 1 but suffered a first-round defeat to former top-10 player Andrea Petkovic.
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At the Australian Open, Liudmila Samsonova beat qualifier Emina Bektas in the first round, reaching the second round for the second consecutive year.
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Liudmila Samsonova lost in the qualifying rounds of the Dubai Tennis Championships before falling to Alize Cornet in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open, in a three-set match.
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Liudmila Samsonova reached the top 25 on 9 May 2022 after a semifinal showing at the Stuttgart Grand Prix where she lost to top seed Iga Swiatek.
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Liudmila Samsonova lost in the first rounds at both WTA 1000 tournaments: the Madrid Open and the Italian Open.
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Liudmila Samsonova's next stop was supposed to be Canadian Open qualifying but she was forced to withdrawal due to still playing at Washington DC She then played at the Tennis in the Land tournament in Cleveland.
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Liudmila Samsonova began her season at the Adelaide International 1 as she sweeped past Zhang Shuai for her first win of the year.
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Liudmila Samsonova reached the third round after a walkover from Zheng Qinwen but lost to top seed and world No 1, Iga Swiatek.
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Liudmila Samsonova was pivotal in Russia's win over the United States as she made her singles debut against Sloane Stephens, coming from a set and multiple break points down to win the first rubber.
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Liudmila Samsonova then came back alongside Kudermetova to beat Shelby Rogers and CoCo Vandeweghe and seal a spot in the final.
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The tournaments won by Liudmila Samsonova are in boldface, and advanced into finals by Liudmila Samsonova are in italics.