Samantha Stosur clears Maria Martinez Sanchez in the opening round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
World number seven Samantha Stosur of Australia kicked off the clay-court season with authority, as she defeated the 33rd ranked Spaniard, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the opening round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix played at the Porsche Tennis Arena at Stuttgart, Germany on Tuesday. The fifth seed Australian took 80 minutes to conclude her straight sets victory at 7-5, 6-1, to step into the second round of the $721,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The runner-up last year at Stuttgart, Stosur registered her fourth consecutive win over the Spanish opponent. The Aussie defeated Sanchez three times during the last year and now leads the all time head-to-head record against her by 4-1. Stosur had some difficulties in the opening set of the contest as she took time to get her eye in the game and then blew away the Spaniard in the second set to seal victory for herself.
“I’m very happy to be back on the red clay,” Stosur reflected her views after the match, “Last year the clay season was the best few months of my career, so to get back on the surface I had that success is a good thing. The goal for me at the moment is to be playing well in matches. I haven’t had the best year so far – I’d like to turn that around leading up to Roland Garros.”
Stosur ignited the contest with her typical aggression and tended to exert pressure upon her opponent early. She delivered her first serve with 67 per cent precision and reeled off 39 of 55 total serve points in the game. The Aussie crafted nine break opportunities in the contest and cashed in four of them, while dropping her serve only once.
The Spaniard also had a decent start to the opener and struck a serve break to level the scores at 5-5. It looked as if the set was well on its way to a tie breaker but the Aussie clouted an all-important serve break to seal the first set at 7-5. She further bagged three straight games in the next set to lead 3-0 and kept pushing Sanchez out of the competition. The Spaniard finally held her serve in the fourth game but the strong Australian raced through the next three games to register victory at 6-1 and get a pass to the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Stosur will take on the world number 36, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in the next stage of the competition. The Slovak defeated Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania in the opening round clash at Stuttgart in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, to meet Stosur.
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