Tennis Special Report: the playing style of Samantha Jane Stosur
The Australian born professional tennis ace from the women’s side, Samantha Jane Stosur is a former top ranked doubles player along with the tennis ace from the United States of America, Lisa Raymond. The right handed Stosur is a singles as well as doubles contender on the tour.
As far as her singles performances are concerned, the Australian tennis sensation has knocked down a couple of big names including Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Justine Henin, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Amelie Mauresmo as well as Lindsay Davenport. Currently, the Australian is ranked number five singles as well as doubles player in the world and also ended this year’s French Open Grand Slam tournament as runner up.
Talking about her style of play, Samantha Stosur during the initial phases of her career was famous as a volley and serve player however with time, she started smashing on the baseline. In spite of the fact that Stosur is popular as a doubles player as a result of her superb drop shots as well as volleys, she has not performed equally well in her singles contests in the recent past.
The strong ground strokes of the Australian tennis ace, Stosur are considered as one of the very best in the modern era. Moreover, the player also has the ability to smash forehand winners from every corner of the ground and her movement while going for the forehand makes it really tough for her opponent to judge where the Australian will smash it. Due to this reason, a lot of players target her backhand side which is famously known as her weakness. However, all through this season, Stosur has worked really hard in this area and as a result it has improved her game to a great deal of extent.
The twenty six years old Stosur is also one of those players from the women’s side who manages her health and fitness pretty well on the tour.
Talking about her serve, it has tremendous power as well as variety in it. Her serve without any measure of speculations is regarded as one of the greatest from the women’s side. Stosur’s very first serve, however inconsistent, is recorded more than 118 mph on an average basis.
Moreover, the Australian’s second serve which is even quicker is without any question considered as the very best and has played a major role in her victories at the Grand Slam French Open championship back in 2009 as well as 2010.
As far as Stosur’s favourite court is concerned, it is undoubtedly the hard surface in spite of the fact that her best major results came on the clay courts at the French open tournament so far in her career.
The 1.72 meters tall Stosur while commenting on her least prefer court in an interview said, “It is the grass court that I am not very fond of playing”. The reason behind this truth is the fact that her strongest tools of fore hand as well as serve are not very operational on these courts. Her recent performances at the grass court Grand Slam tournament have also proved this fact as she has managed to reach the third round only once at the All England Club, so far in her career.
Now, let us have a look at her weakness. During her initial years on the tour, Stosur’s major problem was her failure to tackle the pressure at big matches. It is evident from the fact that the Australian tennis ace, in her first four WTA finals, just grabbed her set number one and fell down in the later ones as a result of losing control over her nerves.
However, Samantha Stosur has improved a great deal in all these aspects of her game over the recent past and we all hope to see her performing even better in the future.
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