WIMBLEDON — Liudmila Samsonova had just reached the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career, a moment she called the “most emotional” she has experienced in tennis. But as she sat down for her postmatch press conference, her face was clouded with disbelief and frustration.
Raised and resident in Italy since the age of one, Samsonova had just been asked about Iga Swiatek’s enthusiasm for the Polish dish of pasta with strawberries, shared with Centre Court on Saturday in the No. 8 seed’s on-court interview.
Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draws
“I’m Italian, so I cannot say anything about that,” said Samsonova, throwing her hands up. “For Italian people, it’s something crazy. Like, it’s not even in the — it’s impossible to dream about this.”
It turns out Swiatek will be Samsonova’s opponent in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Not that Samsonova will know. Before meeting with the press, she made one request: Don’t tell her who she’s playing next. It’s a habit she’s kept for years.
“It’s helping me mentally,” she said. “Don’t think about [the match] too early because I’m starting to burn my mind, overthink.”
Samsonova doesn’t plan to find out until Tuesday night — “at the end of the day,” as she puts it — just before she plays. She jokes that she’s been successful in avoiding this information for so long because “social media, they don’t care about me.”
However, if she continues to deliver on the promise that many have seen in her ever since 2021, when she mowed down a series of higher-ranked opponents including Madison Keys and Belinda Bencic to capture the Berlin title as a qualifier, that may change.
Milestones unlocked in the 2025 grass swing
Before Wimbledon, Samsonova, ranked No. 19, was the third-highest player yet to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal. She’s a five-time WTA titlist and has reached two WTA 1000 finals (Montreal and Beijing in 2023), but had lost all four of her Grand Slam fourth-round matches.
Samsonova has finally broken through that barrier, edging Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5, 7-5 on Court 2 on Monday. It comes hot on the heels of another first. Three weeks ago in Berlin, she triumphed 6-7(8), 7-5, 7-6(5) over defending champion Jessica Pegula in the second round.
At 3 hours and 21 minutes, it’s the second longest match of this year’s grass swing. It was also the first time Samsonova had won from match point down at tour level (she saved two down 5-4 in the third set). And it gave her serious boost ahead of Wimbledon.
“It was like, you know when you have to climb the mountain? It was that one,” Samsonova said. “When I won that match, I did something special, something that I was searching for since a lot of time. It was something that gave me so much confidence, that match. It was unbelievable.”
Quest for personal identity comes together
In a recent “Behind the Racquet” post, Samsonova admitted some of her early struggles derived from a lack of identity. She had been pulled in various sporting directions as a child. She was raised in Turin by Russian parents, but Italian citizenship laws meant that she could not acquire a passport of her resident country. Samsonova, who had represented Italy as a junior, reverted to her parents’ flag in 2018. She didn’t even know what game style best suited her.
Now, it’s all starting to make sense.
“It’s because … every person is growing in different time, like the maturity of the person,” Samsonova said. “It’s different from anyone. So I think I’m starting to know very well who I am, which player I am, and everything. The puzzle is just going, like, everything together.”