NEW YORK—Liudmila Samsonova has long been an enigma.
Part of that is due to her tennis. The 2024 US Open’s sixteenth seed is one of the cleanest ball-strikers in the game, blessed with aesthetic technique and all-court abilities, yet struggles for consistency with pre-quarterfinal exits at all but two of the major and WTA 1000 tournaments in 2024.
“I think I’m closer to understanding,” she said of her ups and downs ahead of a fourth-round clash with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. “I still need to grow as a person, and then on court we will see. Hopefully, some more results.”
Her on-court unpredictability translates to interviews, where she can be charming, but painfully brief. An otherwise pleasant chat, her answers terminate without warning, which often leaves her inquiring opponent scrambling to follow up.
Samsonova has enjoyed her best major results at the US Open, where she has reached the second week two out of the last three years.
“I’m learning how to manage the pressure,” she told me in Cincinnati, her voice high and bouncy. “The pressure I put on myself and also the pressure of the moment, or even the ranking. I think it all comes down to mentality. Of course, to be healthy first, ok. If I’m healthy, I want to work well mentally.
“If I can manage my mental side, I can go through to the end.”
In form from reaching back-to-back WTA 1000 quarterfinals in Toronto and Cincinnati, her mentality was nonetheless tested early in Flushing Meadows when she found herself down a set and 5-2 to Mubadala Citi DC Open finalist Marie Bouzkova.
“I don’t know how I won that match,” she sighed, reflecting on her nearly three-hour second-round tussle. “But when I was there on court, I was feeling that I could do it, honestly. I was feeling like, ‘til the end, I will try to do my best because I felt I had the chance to win even if the score was really down.
“After I won that match, I had so much confidence because I said, ‘I can be really strong, you know?’”
