Samantha Stosur: Road to her first Grand Slam victory
Winning a Grand Slam title is certainly a dream of every professional tennis player and it is said that only the best in business go out to achieve this feat in their careers. Some players may achieve this incredible feat very
early in their careers while some go through years of struggle to lift a Grand Slam trophy for the first time. Samantha Stosur of Australia is among the winners who earned her first Grand Slam title at the age of 27 this year.
Currently holding the seventh spot in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) World Rankings, Stosur is reckoned to be one of the finest women tennis players around these days. Australia’s number one tennis star, Stosur has three
WTA championship title to her name, which include the all prestigious Grand Slam title at the US Open this season.
The Australian took off the current year as the world number six and carried on her brilliant form to make her dream come true in New York. She has been in a decent form this WTA season and had gone through some bad patches but
recovered very well to remain in the Top-10 for the most of the season. Her winning record for the year is 43-21 so far, with one championship victory.
Stosur’s voyage to her first Grand Slam victory this year is nothing less than a fairy tale. The Aussie had not won a single championship title by the time she stepped on the hard courts of New York to begin her US Open campaign.
She was not considered a strong contender for the Major title, as she had pretty ordinary runs in the prior Grand Slam tournaments of the year. Stosur beat all the odds to outplay the defending champion, Serena Williams of the United States, to get her hands
of her first ever US Open trophy.
The Aussie took off her current season at her home, suffering second round exits in events at Brisbane and Sydney before entering the Australian Open as the fifth seed. Her slump continued in the first Grand Slam event of the year
as well and she was ousted in the third round by the 25th seed Czech, Petra Kvitova, in straight sets.
Stosur continued with her nick of dropping out of the early rounds in most of the tournaments she took part in, except in Dubai, where she lost in the quarter-finals and in Stuttgart, Germany, where she was the semi-finalist.
The Aussie lost to Maria Sharapova in the final of a clay-court event in Rome before she stepped on the red surface of Paris to play the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, as the eighth seed. Once again Stosur fell
in the third round of the Roland Garros at the hands of the unseeded Argentine, Gisela Dulko.
Stosur dropped to number 10 in the WTA rankings immediately after her French Open loss. She then lost the semi-final to Marion Bartoli in Eastbourne and then went on with her tough luck to suffer an agonising opening round exit
from the Wimbledon Championships as well. Stosur’s second round loss in Stanford pushed her to number 11 in the world rankings but she recaptured the 10th spot after her amazing run in the Premier Level tournament in Toronto, losing in the final
to Serena Williams. She lost to Williams again in the following event in Cincinnati and entered the US Open field as the ninth seed.
The Australian outplayed a number of top class players in the tournament, including Nadia Petrova, Maria Kirilenko and Vera Zvonareva to book her third consecutive battle with the three time US Open winner Serena Williams. Stosur
was rated as the underdog in the competition against the mighty American but she stunned everyone with her amazing tennis skills to outclass Williams in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, to claim the title.
Stosur’s road to her first Grand Slam title was full of agonising moments but the resilient Australian overcame all the depressing moments to rejoice her emphatic victory at the US Open.
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