Champions of 2011: Samantha Stosur – US Open Women’s Singles
Samantha Stosur was born on the 30th of March, 1984 into a polish decent but is an Australian professional tennis player. She began playing tennis after a friend introduced her to tennis at the age of 8 and after years
of sharpening her skills, she eventually entered the ITF circuit in 1999.
During her early years Samantha was a doubles specialist and practised on the ITF court and in 2001, she won four straight titles. It was in 2000 that she debuted for the WTA career and from there onwards she embarked on her journey
to success.
In July 2007, Sam contracted Lyme disease and, having spent sixty one consecutive weeks ranked as the number one doubles player in the world, was forced to end her season prematurely.
It was in 2009 that she claimed her maiden WTA title in Osaka, Japan and since then is renowned for her serve, which is now considered one of the best on the women’s tour. The Queenslander achieved her year-end ranking of world
number 13 the same year, which was an added bonus.
In 2010, the Australian focused on the singles circuit, with the change bringing almost immediate success and a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open was just the beginning as Stosur improved her style and technique.
Stosur inducted her second WTA singles title to her haul by triumphing in Charleston and prior to this she made it to the semis at Indian Wells and the quarterfinals in Miami. She further progressed to becoming a runner up at her
next event in Stuttgart but fell short to Justine Henin.
The Aussie became the first player since 2000 to beat Justine Henin and ended her twenty seven match winning streak in Paris, along with Serena Williams in the same Grand Slam event which was the French Open.
Sam saw early round exits during the start on the year but then slowly picked up and was a quarterfinalist at Dubai and Stuttgart. Nonetheless, on clay courts of Rome, she saw her winning streak end at the hands of Maria Sharapova
in the final match. She further improved her performance and became a runner up at Toronto losing to the thirteen times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in the clash for the winner’s silverware.
However, she avenged her loss against Williams in a true clash of the titans at Flushing Meadows during the US Open and bagged the title to make her the first Australian after Margret Court to achieve a feat like this. However,
the Australian nose-dived after accomplishing her biggest feat. A more recent loss was at the TEB BNP season-end WTA Championships, when she lost to Petra Kvitova in the semi final.
Nevertheless, Sam is also an accomplished doubles player; she reached the number one ranking in doubles in February 2006 having conquered a series of titles with Lisa Raymond. Recognising Stosur’s tireless efforts in encouraging
and promoting tennis to devotees, followers, fans, media, and local communities, she was awarded with the WTA’s Diamond ACES Award for 2010.
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