Stanford top seed Sam Stosur to miss Commonwealth Games
A year ago, an improving Sam Stosur dished out an upset victory to Serena Williams in Stanford, and afterwards was described by the 13-time Grand Slam champion as “a good framer”.
This year, the Australian returns to the tournament as its top seed. The hunted, rather than the hunter after a memorable 12 months that have seen Stosur break into the top-five and reach the final of the French Open.
Such is Stosur’s focus on success on the WTA Tour these days too, that reports are she won’t be part of this year's Commonwealth Games in India as tennis makes its debut at the event.
Playing in Delhi would have seen the world No. 5 miss the China Open and potentially Osaka, where a potential title defence awaits, and could have jeopardised her chances of qualifying for the season-ending championships. Stosur currently sits fourth in the race rankings for a place in the select Doha field.
And it’s taken a lot more than a series of lucky mis-hits, as was Williams’ implication after their Stanford quarter-final in 2009, for Stosur to book her place among tennis’ current crop of elite players.
Consecutive victories against former French Open champion Justine Henin, Serena herself and then former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic to reach the 2010 French Open decider (where Francesca Schiavone played what may just be the match of her career to claim the title) proved Stosur has both the game and the mental fortitude to overcome even the toughest of opponents.
The question now is how Stosur deals with the pressure of playing her first tournament as top seed. The 26-year-old certainly had no problem with the underdog tag in Paris, but she didn’t seem to cope quite as well with the favouritism that remarkable run brought her against a calm and collected Schiavone in the final.
Stanford, then, will provide the Queenslander with another chance to get used to dealing with the growing expectations she now takes with her onto court, and the opportunity to build upon her hard court credentials after an impressive clay court run (which, in addition to Roland Garros, included the Charleston title and a runner-up showing to Henin in Stuttgart).
“I think I’m playing really well at the moment and I’m looking forward to getting to the States and getting on the hard courts again and hopefully it will all end with a great US Open,” Stosur has told her official website, samstosur.com.
This year, the injured Serena will be nowhere in sight in Stanford (she’d planned to play in the Istanbul Cup before cutting her foot on a broken glass and withdrawing from all her scheduled US Open warm-up tournaments), but Elena Dementieva will be making her return from injury in California, after missing Wimbledon due to a calf injury.
Second-seeded Dementieva already has a second-round match against veteran Kimiko Date Krumm lined up, after the 39-year-old defeated Dinara Safina in the opening day’s play on Monday, while Stosur will begin her tournament with a second round match against one of two qualifiers, either the USA’s Christina McHale or Chinese Taipei’s Kai-Chen Chang.
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