Wozniacki suffers surprise defeat at the hands of Stosur in Doha
When Aussie Samantha Stosur first made an impact on the tennis world in 2005, there were many critics who discounted her as little more than a one-hit wonder. This year, and particularly her most recent win, has been Stosur’s rebuttal to the many doubtful
comments thrown her way; she has proven herself to be a lot more than just the player who ended up as World Number 46 at the end of 2005.
Yesterday, the World Number 7 player defeated WTA’s new favourite Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets, with the Dane dropping out of the tournament in a surprising defeat, and finishing the match with a score line of 6-4, 6-3. This success gives Stosur two
wins over World Number 1s, the first one being at the French Open quarter finals against Serena Williams – the only time the American player has been overthrown this year. Sam is the first player this year to score wins over two top players.
In this Doha match, Stosur called on her exceptional firepower as an attack at Wozniacki, who was left completely bewildered by the performance. She said to reporters after the match,” She was serving well definitely, and she's hitting with a lot of spin.
She's playing different than the other girls.” The Australian player seemed to agree with this assessment, although she brought up the French Open, where she suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Francesca Schiavone and which remains a touchy subject
with her.
The right handed player says, “yeah, it's a good achievement. Whenever you can do that in your career, that's a good thing. But I guess to do it here and at the French, they're two big tournaments where it means a lot to everyone who's competing, so I'm
very, very pleased with that."
The success is even more exceptional, since the Danish player has emerged as the victor in 30 of her last 32 matches. This is a record which has given Wozniacki five titles, and seemed to make her a sure shot for defeating Stosur. However, the Aussie surprised
her opponent with several tricks up her sleeve, stealing five aces, multiple winners and unreturnable serves.
The first set’s serve went to Wozniacki, until Stosur’s persistence paid off in the tenth game, where she took the serve. With Wozniacki faltering slightly, Sam took full advantage of her situation. She forced Wozniacki into a mediocre lob shot right before
she took the set 6-4. In the second set, Wozniacki began showing signs of obvious frustration at the game’s situation.Although she had a brief chance at 3-5 on one of Stosur’s doubele faults, Sam quickly recovered and shut down the set with a victory at 6-3.
Stosur is obviously delighted at the victory. The 26 year old from Queensland says, "I'm very happy overall with the whole match. Soon as I got a chance I took it. If you can beat a player like Caroline in straight sets here at such a big event, then it's
fantastic. I've got obviously one more round match tomorrow, and hopefully I can find myself in the semis."
From this point in during the tournament, a close loss from Stosur would also push her into the honour roll with the only other female Australian tennis player, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
The fifth seed’s next match is scheduled against drowning Russian tennis pro Elena Dementieva, who was defeated by none other than Wozniacki herself. If the player wins one more set during the match, it will prove sufficient to give her a wide open path
to the semi finals of the Doha event – it is her debut at the Qatar tournament.
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