Liudmila Samsonova was born on November 11 1998, in the industrial city of Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast, Russia. She is now a professional tennis player for Russia. She also competed for the Italy Fed Cup team, from 2014 to 2018 while she was based there with her family.
She won her first WTA Tour title at the 2021 German Open,In this incredible run in Berlin, she beat Madison Keys, Victoria Azarenka, and Belinda Bencic.She earned her first WTA 500 title, in June 2021. She has also won a total of six titles on the ITF Circuit.
Though Samsonova had a decent junior career, her highest junior ranking was 65 in the world. Since entering the women’s tour, she has made steady progress.
Biotable
| Age | 23 |
| Height | 1.80 mts |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Turned professional | 2013 |
| Career titles | 1 |
| Highest ranking (Singles) | No. 30 |
| Current ranking (Singles) | No. 30 |
| Social media profile | Instagram @lyuda_samsonova_
Twitter @LiudaSamsonova |
Personal Information and Relationships
- Samsonova was born 11 November 1998 in the industrial city of Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast, Russia to Dmitry Samsonov and Svetlana Samsonova
- Her father who was a table tennis player was invited to play for the club “Ferentino” based in Torino so the family moved with the then-one-year-old Liudmila to Italy.
- She began playing tennis at the age of six,encouraged by her father who told her to take up either table tennis or lawn tennis.
- She soon joined Riccardo Piatti’s tennis academy in Sanremo and was helped financially by the local tennis federation.
- Until 2018, Liudmila represented Italy in professional tennis,she switched to Russia due to the extra pressure of competing for the Italian national team.
- Currently trains in Rome with Alessandro Dumitrache, formerly working with Alessandro Piccari.
Career
- In 2013, Samsonova made her professional debut at consecutive ITF Circuit tournaments in Umag, but lost both her singles matches.
- In 2014, Samsonova won her first ITF title at a $10k event in Rome. This win allowed her debut on the WTA rankings at the 960th spot.
- 2017 was a good year for Samsonova, in which she reached three $15k finals in Hammamet, Pula and Mâcon thus enabling her to end the year ranked at no 552
- In 2018, she won her first $25k title at the Open Castilla y León. She followed this up with her performance at the Open de Saint-Malo where she broke into the top 200 for the first time in her career.
- Her performance at the US Open in 2020 enabled her to have a ranking of 118.
- In 2021,She earned the biggest win of her career over Kiki Bertens and reached the third round of a WTA 1000 event for the first time in her career.
- Samsonova then reached her first WTA 500 quarterfinal after defeating Veronika Kudermetova, she then went on to defeat Madison Keys and followed it up with a win over two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinal.In the final, she defeated Belinda Bencic thus winning her maiden WTA title in her career.
Prize Money Earnings
She has earned a total of around 1,401,012 US$ from her participation in different championships. In the year 2022 alone, she collected US$ 244,198 as prize money.
Endorsements and Sponsors
- All her clothing on the court is sponsored by Nike.
- Her footwear on court is sponsored by Asics.
- Samsonova has a racquet sponsorship contract with Wilson. She uses the Wilson Blade 98 racquet.
- She is also associated with Liolà Cosmetics which is an Italian cosmetics company that makes natural, eco-friendly products.
Net Worth
Samsonova’s total net worth as of today is 1.5 million US$. While there is no absolute confirmation on the figure, it is likely to be true due to the large amounts of cash she collects as prize money and also from her endorsements.
Trivia
- Liudmila claims that if her parents had stayed in Russia she would have chosen figure skating over tennis.
- Her hobbies include listening to and playing music, attending concerts and watching films.
- Her tennis idol is Maria Sharapova
- Her favorite shot is her forehand.
- Her favorite surface to play on is hard court.
- She speaks Italian as a native language and English as her second one, and though out of practice, her Russian is surprisingly good.
