Samantha Stosur outplays Sloane Stephens to reach the quarter-finals – French Open 2012
Winner of the last year’s US Open title, Samantha Stosur of Australia, has powered her way to the quarter-final round of another Grand Slam event in Paris, France. The sixth seed Aussie veteran outsmarted the American teenager, Sloane Stephens, in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, in the fourth round clash of the French Open on Sunday.
It has been a terrific run for 19-year-old Stephens at the star-studded event in Paris but her voyage was finally ended by the brilliance of the world number six in the fourth round. The 70th ranked American had ousted a number of top class players, including Ekaterina Makarova, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mathilde Johansson, en route to the round of 16 but couldn’t replicate her magic against the 28-year-old Aussie on Sunday. It was the first ever encounter between these two contenders and Stosur reigned supreme over the youngster to advance into the quarter-finals.
"She kind of caught me off guard," Stosur said. "I went down the break and got a little bit mad with myself and then recomposed. It was tough to come back from 5-3. That 5-all game was huge for both of us. Luckily I was the one who got through and was able to step it up and get on a little bit of a roll from that point."
Stosur had to overcome the early resistance from Stephens and she effectively frittered away the aggression of her inexperienced opponent to come on top. The sixth seed Aussie used her first serve to its optimum effect, delivering 72 per cent of it on target and winning 31 out of 48 points on it. She broke the American serve five out of eight times in the contest, whilst Stephens came up with three out of six break point conversions to finish on the losing side in the end.
"I was playing pretty well in the first set and had my chances - I served for the set, didn't serve it out," Stephens said afterwards. "I made a little comeback in the second set as well but couldn't make it. It was a weird one - but you learn from it.
Stosur will next face the 15th seed Slovakian, Dominika Cibulkova, in the quarter-final round of the French Open. Cibulkova registered the biggest of the tournament on Sunday afternoon by defeating the reigning world number one, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4), in the fourth round’s play.
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