Samantha Stosur beats former world number one Serena Williams to claim title – US Open 2011
Coming towards the conclusion of the fourth Grand Slam event of the year, US Open 2011 saw some great hard hitting tennis. The Women’s Singles event took place Sunday afternoon and the two contenders were; the 13 time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams and Australian Samantha Stosur. The two competed on Arthur Ashe Stadium of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for 73 minutes. Number 9 seeded Stosur made history as she beat number 28 seeded Williams in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.
Serena Williams, who was the hot topic of the of the US Open hadn’t lost a single match in the summer hard court lead-up and the comeback was quite spectacular as she kept her winning streak going, storming through the first six matches in straight sets on Ashe stadium.
Mean while, Stosur was making history; by first surviving the longest match to be ever played in Women’s Tennis, then the longest tie breaker and finally she did it again by snapping the 13-time Grand Slam champion's streak to give Australia its first women's Grand Slam singles champion in more than 31 years (The last one being won by Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon in 1980).
As the two players walked on court the crowd cheered for their favourite Serena Williams, after winning the toss, she opened the score board to 1-0. In the following three games the players won on their serves but in the fifth game they exchanged a couple of shots till Serena over hit a forehand and Stosur broke her to win a game. Although Stosur held her serve in the sixth game, in the seventh she broke her with a short angled backhand which Serena struggled to hit and managed to secure her lead. During the eighth game Stosur was serving for the match, while, Serena was looking to break her, but in the end Stosur smacked a forehand down the line for a winner and sealed the set in her favour.
After 31 minutes of play, Stosur outplayed Williams by hitting seven winners and benefitted from the ten ill-timed unforced errors committed by the three time former champion to win the set.
Opening the second set was Williams and in the second game she broke Stosur to take the lead 2-0. It was a mini lead for Serena and the window of opportunity but Stosur was seeking her first Grand Slam title and broke back in the following game. Again the two held serve for three games at which point the score board read as 3-3. In the seventh game Stosur continuously peppered her adversary’s backhand with her backhand and eventually reaped the reward with a break to take the lead of 4-3. She then held her serve in the eighth game and in the ninth Stosur outfoxed Serena with an off forehand winner in the rally and earned the Championship point to become the US Open 2011 champion!
Following her loss, Serena said, "I was a little more tired than I expected, but I'm not here to make excuses. I want to give all the credit to Sam, because I think she played really, really well".
At the trophy presentation Stosur said, "I think I had one of my best days. It was fortunate to do it on this stage in New York, where I love to play and would like to thank all my friends and all my family, and to everyone for supporting me. I'm really looking forward to coming back home to Australia."
When all was said and done, Stosur came out firing and never allowed Serena to find her footing. The Aussie fired two aces and twenty winners to get the job done, achieving her third career singles title and the very first Grand Slam triumph.
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