Liudmila Samsonova’s serve and flat hitting make her a natural threat on grass, with two titles to show for it, but 2026 was a lean summer. Early exits in the warm-up events and a third-round defeat at Wimbledon left her 20th in the women’s GTC Grass Rankings with a GTC Grass Rating of 102.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 102, 20th in the women’s rankings (17th before the season, on 106)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 48, Arsenal 73, Wimbledon 45, Nerve 42
- Nationality: Russia
- Best Wimbledon result: Quarter-final (2025)
- Grass titles: Berlin 2021, ‘s-Hertogenbosch 2024
- Plays: Right-handed, two-handed backhand
How Liudmila plays on grass
Samsonova’s game is built for short points. She serves big, follows with flat drives off both wings and tries to end rallies within the first few shots. On grass the ball stays low and quick off her racket, and when the serve is landing she can hold comfortably and break with a few heavy returns. Her Arsenal score of 73 rests almost entirely on that first-strike power.
The surface is less kind when the rally extends. She is not a natural mover on grass, and when opponents absorb her pace and make her hit extra balls, errors come in clusters. Her second serve can also be attacked on a quick court, which puts more pressure on the first delivery. That is reflected in a Nerve score of 42: tight sets and deciding sets have often gone against her, as they did at Wimbledon in 2026.
Grass record
Grass has produced some of her best moments. Her first WTA title came in Berlin in 2021, where she beat Belinda Bencic in the final, and she reached the Wimbledon fourth round that summer. In 2024 she won ‘s-Hertogenbosch, beating Bianca Andreescu 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
Her best Wimbledon came in 2025, when she reached the quarter-finals before losing to Iga Świątek, the eventual champion. She missed 2022 because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, and lost in the first round in 2023 before reaching the third round in 2024. The pattern is clear: when she arrives with confidence from the warm-up events, she is dangerous in the first week.
The 2026 grass season
The 2026 warm-up events produced no momentum. She lost early at Queen’s, Berlin and Bad Homburg, and the rating slid from 106 to 105 and then to 104, where it stayed after Bad Homburg.
Wimbledon offered a partial recovery. She beat qualifier Polina Kudermetova 6-3, 6-3 and then 15th seed Diana Shnaider 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. In the third round she took the first set against 21st seed Marie Bouzková but lost 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, and the rating finished at 102, a net fall of four points across the season. Bouzková went on to lose to Elise Mertens in the next round.
Looking ahead to 2027
Samsonova’s grass ceiling is higher than her 2026 rating suggests, as her 2025 quarter-final showed. For 2027 she needs wins in the warm-up events, where she has won titles before, so that she reaches Wimbledon with rhythm rather than looking for it. The work is in the longer rallies: better footing on grass and more patience before pulling the trigger. A realistic target is a warm-up final and the second week at Wimbledon.
