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Liudmila Samsonova credits sports psychologist Claudia Gambarino for her great form and recent success. Samsonova, 23, has been playing the tennis of her life in recent weeks. Since August, Samsonova has played four tournaments and captured three titles.
After Wimbledon, Samsonova's coach Danilo Pizzorno suggested to the Russian to start working with Gambarino. Samsonova listened and it has been paying off massively. On Sunday, Samsonova defeated Zheng Qinwen to win Tokyo.
"I'm understanding very well during the match what is happening," Samsonova told WTA Insider after her win in Tokyo. "I'm not getting nervous. I'm always very calm and I'm trying to understand what is going on on the court and what will be the solution to make me play better.
That's the difference. We are talking every day. It's the work that pays off."
Could Samsonova qualify for the WTA Finals?
Following her series of good results, Samsonova rose to the 19th place on the Race to the WTA Finals.
With 1,806 points earned this season, Samsonova is around 700 points behind Veronika Kudermetova, who is the ninth on the race. It should be noted that Simona Halep - who is the eighth on the race - is out for the season so ninth-ranked Kudermetova is basically the last player who would make the cut if the WTA Finals started today.
"Please, I don't want to hear it! Because I know it's going to be a drama," Samsonova said, when asked about the prospect of qualifying for the WTA Finals. "I'm going to lose first round and first round [laughs]. No, I'm joking.
I'm going to go to San Diego and Guadalajara, these are my last tournaments. I will try to keep working on my game again. I don't want to think about the ranking right now. This stuff in the past stopped me. It was tough for me to keep improving if I thought about the rankings. So I don't want to think about this. I just want to enjoy and play my game."