Top 20 star endorsed as big titles threat in 2024

James Richardson 17 Dec 2023 4:01 PM

Liudmila Samsonova in action.

After reaching two WTA 1000 finals in 2023, Liudmila Samsonova looks like she could be a player to watch in the coming season.

A number of prominent pundits have backed Samsonova to finally notch the big win she has threatened for at least three seasons.

Gil Gross is among those who feels that Samsonova has the weapons to be a big time player.

“At her best, Samsonova’s serve and forehand are both Top 5 on tour in the firepower department,” Gross said according to the Tennis Channel.

“You’d think for a player with those weapons to never make the Top 10, there would need to be a severe weakness or two—maybe backhand or movement—but with Samsonova that’s not even the case,” said Gross.

“What happened last year was strange because, statistically, her return game improved from 2022 but her serving actually declined significantly. Bizarre as it may sound, all she needs to do next year is serve like it’s 2022 and return like it’s 2023.”

Alex Gruskin believes that her power and unpredictability make her a threat to even the best players.

“Her ability to produce a baseline winner at a moment’s notice consistently keeps her opponents on edge,” Gruskin said.

“That combination of power and unpredictability enables her to dictate the terms of engagement in almost every match she plays. Plus, she has the ability to win free points off her serve that few WTA players can match.

“If you can do those three things consistently over the course of two weeks, you can win a major.”

Gruskin feels that Samsonova lacks a plan B when things don’t quite go her way which prevents her from getting her hands on the bigger trophies.

“As dominant as Plan A can be, she’s yet to develop adequate tools to easily steady herself when things start to go awry,” offered Gruskin.

“Her movement has also gotten much better, but she’s still not the most fluid moving in and out of corners.”

In her 2023 start at the Adelaide International 1, Samsonova won her first match of the year, easily defeating Zhang Shuai. Despite leading 5-1 in the opening set, she lost in two tiebreaks against eventual winner Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.

This was followed by a first-round loss in Adelaide 2 in straight sets against Amanda Anisimova. Having been seeded eighteenth in the Australian Open, she won through the first round overcomimg Jasmine Paolini in straight sets before falling to Donna Vekić in the second round.

She also prevailed in the opening round in Dubai, defeating Paula Badosa in the third-longest match of the year, which lasted three hours and twenty-two minutes.

She defeated Zheng Qinwen to get to the third round, however she was defeated by world No 1 and top seed Iga Swiątek. She shared the doubles title at the same tournament with Veronika Kudermetova.

Consequently, on February 27, 2023, she achieved new career-high rankings of world No 12 in singles and No 59 in doubles.

After Kudermetova and her advanced to the semifinals of the French Open, she ranked within the top 40 in doubles on June 12, 2023.

Samsonova advanced to the WTA 1000 Canadian Open final, where Jessica Pegula defeated her. She then lost to Swiatek in another final in China.