Sam Stosur wins late night US Open epic
Sam Stosur saved four match points as she emerged victorious from an epic late-night tussle with Russia’s Elena Dementieva to book a place in the US Open quarter-finals.
The fifth seed, who arrived in Flushing Meadows this year having yet to progress beyond the second round of the year’s final Grand Slam, will now take on defending champion Kim Clijsters as she attempts to take her place among the final four.
It was 1.37am in New York when Stosur finally claimed the match-winning point over 12th seeded Dementieva, sealing the 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) victory in a fourth round clash that lasted two hours and 40 minutes.
The enthralling dual ultimately concluded later than any women’s match had ever finished at the US Open.
While the pair treated fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium to some of their most penetrating and powerful groundstrokes as they fought for ascendency in the match, this was also a match where both struggled to hold serve and which saw 15 breaks and no less than 37 break point chances, in total.
It was Stosur - whose powerful serving, especially her kicker, caused no end of trouble on clay this spring as she toppled seed after seed to reach the French Open final (which she lost to Francesca Schiavone) – who struggled most in the second set, as she failed to muster a solitary hold of serve.
Her Russian opponent, whose awkward serve has long been recognised as the biggest weakness in her game, fared no better, as she was broken eight times for the match. The last of them were crucial breaks too, as Stosur staged a come-from-behind final set fightback to turn around a 0-3 and then a 5-3 deficit in the third set to force a tiebreak.
Clijsters, in contrast, breezed past another former world No. 1 in Ana Ivanovic in her fourth round match, taking a 6-2, 6-1 victory as she continued to take the pressure of a title defence in her stride.
While yesterday’s loss wasn’t pretty for Ivanovic, the Serb can take heart that for the first three matches of the tournament she produced some confident tennis that she’ll be hoping signals the beginning of a return to form after almost two seasons in the doldrums.
“It's still, you know, kind of a process, and I made big steps,” Ivanovic said post-match. “You know, it is disappointing in the way I kind of played today. But still, I had a really good week. You know, I probably got further than I expected to in the first place, so I'm really happy about that.”
Joining Stosur and Clijsters in the quarter-finals are former champion Venus Williams, who extended her unbeaten run over Israel’s Shahar Peer to six wins from six matches with a 7-6(3), 6-3 fourth round victory, and sixth seeded Schiavone, who dispatched teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and eight minutes to book a final eight match against Williams.
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