Samantha Jane Storus, favourite to win the French Open
The Australian professional Tennis Player Samantha Jane Stosur was born on 30th March 1984 in Brisbane. Along with Lisa Raymond of the United States, she is also the former Number 1 player on WTA Tour in Doubles. The Australian player has defeated a number of big names including Serena Williams, Justin Henin, Jelina Jenkovic, Dinara Safina, Lindsay Davenport, Ana Ivanović, as well as Amelie Mauresmo.
When Stosur was just 6 years old, her residence located in Gold Coast was demolished by flood. As a result her whole family moved to Adelaide. Stosur got a racquet as a gift for Christmas at the age of 8 and thereafter started playing Tennis. She along with her elder brother Daniel used to play Tennis for long hours at local courts of the locality. Stosur later on joined Tennis classes as well.
At the age of 13, Stosur for the first time went to Jakarta, Indonesia on her first overseas tour and participated in the World Youth Cup. The Australian Tennis star joined the Academy of Queensland when she was of 14 years old. There, she learnt Tennis under the supervision of Geoff Masters. Heading further towards her destination, Stosur went to the Australian Institute of sports Women Programme in 2001.
On the circuit of ITF, Stosur for the first time in her life played professional Tennis in 1999. She lost her first qualifying match of the Australian Open when she made a debut in the Women’s Tennis Association trip in 2000.
In 2001, the Tennis star straight away won four ITF titles. During the first round of the Gold Coast Event, Stosur lost the match in 2002. The Australian Tennis player made her way to the third round of the Australian Open in 2003 and won the WTA singles for the first time. Later on in Memphis, Stosur again qualified for a WTA event.
The Australian star for the first time went into the semi finals of the Gold Coast event in 2004 but eventually fell to Ai Sugiyama. Just after a week, in Hobart, Storus made her way to the second round of the WTA Tournament. Later on, in Indian Wells, Acapulco, Birmingham and Vienna, the Australian again qualified for the events of WTA. Paired with Els Callens, Stosur towards the end of 2004 went into the finals of the Doubles in Quebec City.
During the event at Gold Coast, Stosur for the first time reached the final of her WTA Tour at her home however lost the match to Patty Schnyder. Finishing off the Sydney event as a runner up, won her first doubles title at the same series paired with Bryanne Stewart another Australian Player. Later on Stosur did manage to grab mixed doubles title along with Scott Draper.
By the end of 2005, Stosur won seven WTA doubles titles to her name along with Lisa Raymond. It includes the WTA Tour Championship, US Open as well as Kremlin Cup. The Australian star ended the year with number two rankings in the double and 46 in singles.
Stosur won all of her single matches at the Hopman Cup in 2006. In doubles, she won 18 matches straight away paired with Raymond and won titles in Indian wells, Miami, Tokyo, Memphis, WTA Tour Championship as well as the French Open in Charleston. Stosur reached her career high ranking of number 30 on 28th August, 2006.
The pair successfully defended their crown in Miami, Indian Wells and Tokyo in 2007 as well. Later on, the Australian player won four matches in the Fed up Asia Zone Competition, reached the finals of India’s double, the finals of her fifth WTA Tour. As a result her career ranking jumped to Number 15 within no time.
Coming into the French Open Tournament, the Australian Tennis star was ranked Number 7 and is now considered one of the hot favourites to win the title. Her form and style of play at the moment favours her victory as well.
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