Samsonova's first real breakthrough came when she was leaving her teenage years. 2017–2018: Breakthrough on the ITF Circuit Nonetheless, she managed to return to the top 1000 towards the end of 2016, after reaching the final of an $10k event in Solarino. The upcoming two years saw her struggle on the ITF Circuit, amassing an 11–12 win–loss record which caused her ranking to stagnate. The win allowed her debuting on the WTA rankings, at the 960th spot and finished the year in 840th. Ģ014 saw Samsonova winning her first ITF title at a $10k event in Rome, beating three seeded players to clinch the victory despite being unranked. In 2013, Samsonova made her professional debut at consecutive ITF Circuit tournaments in Umag, but lost her both singles qualifying matches. Her biggest achievements were winning consecutive ITF Junior Circuit Grade-2 tournaments in 2016, defeating notable players such as Kaja Juvan and Marta Kostyuk. Samsonova reached her highest ITF junior ranking on 18 July 2016, peaking at the 65th spot on the rankings. She speaks fluent Italian, Russian, and English. Liudmila admitted that if her parents had stayed in Russia she would have chosen figure skating. In October 2021, Samsonova clarified she has never had Italian citizenship and thus never faced the option of choosing between the two flags. She keeps practicing outside of Russia, as she is unsatisfied with the condition for professional tennis provided by the Russian Tennis Federation domestically. According to the Tennis Weekend, Samsonova faced problems while trying to obtain an Italian passport and there was a certain shortage of support for her as an immigrant from the Italian Tennis Federation. Russian sources were more specific about all the reasons behind the unusual switch after turning 18 in the light of significant amount of local players switching from the Russian flag. In July 2021, she explained the reason behind her decision was the extra pressure of competing for the Italian national team, a country where tennis is more followed than in Russia where she feels like competing only for herself, especially considering her "boom boom" hard-hitting game style. Between 20, Liudmila represented Italy in professional tennis, before switching to the Russian flag. She started playing at the age of six, joining Riccardo Piatti's tennis academy in Sanremo after the local tennis association helped her financially. Her father urged her to start playing either table tennis or lawn tennis, choosing the latter. Her father Dmitry, a table tennis player, was invited to play for the club Ferentino based in Turin. Their family moved with the then-one-year-old Liudmila to Italy. Samsonova was born in the industrial city of Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast, Russia. At the 2020–21 Billie Jean King Cup, Samsonova led the Russian team to their first triumph since 2008, winning all five of her matches in both singles and doubles. She has also won a total of eight singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She 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. Samsonova has career-high WTA rankings of No. She also competed for Italy from 2014 to 2018. Liudmila Dmitrievna Samsonova (Russian: Людмила Дмитриевна Самсонова, IPA: born 11 November 1998) is a Russian professional tennis player.
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