Stosur shelves past with stunning US Open success
Seemingly somewhat lost in Serena Williams’ latest US Open temper tantrum (if you could call it that) is who actually won the final, the way in which she won, and how significant it is for her career.
Were it not for Serena’s controversial confrontation with chair umpire Eva Asderaki in the second set of Sunday’s final against Sam Stosur, a lot more attention would be on how Stosur dominated Williams 6-2, 6-3 to win her first Grand Slam title. It’s a real shame too, because Stosur did something that few women not related to Serena have been able to do against her.
Serena came into the 2011 US Open final 13-3 in Grand Slam singles finals and 39-14 overall in tournament finals in her career. Two of those Grand Slam final defeats were to her sister Venus, and until Sunday, she hadn’t lost a Grand Slam final to a non-Venus opponent since a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova stunned her 6-1, 6-4 in the 2004 Wimbledon final.
As if beating Serena in a Grand Slam final isn’t a noteworthy achievement in itself, Stosur’s previous struggles in finals make it even more monumental.
Online sports betting enthusiasts will recall that Stosur was a decided favorite over Francesca Schiavone ahead of the 2010 French Open final, but the Italian defeated her in straight sets, including a 7-2 win in a second-set tiebreaker to clinch the title. Overall, Stosur was 2-9 in WTA Tour singles finals heading into Sunday, with her only titles coming in the 2009 HP Open in Osaka, Japan (a 7-5, 6-1 win over Schiavone) and the 2010 Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina (a 6-0, 6-3 win over Vera Zvonareva).
So, for her to overcome that past history and keep her composure and not get rattled by Serena’s loss of hers is a giant step for Stosur, who had been known mostly for her success in doubles until making a real rise as a singles player over the last few seasons.
But is it a career-changing step? It is on one hand, because winning a major event in any sport gives you far more notoriety than you had beforehand. But can she parlay this success into even more, or will she prove to be a one-hit wonder?
Expectations were high for her going into this year’s Australian Open, and she fell far short of them, going down in the third round to surprise Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova. But now, after becoming the first Australian to win a Grand Slam women’s singles title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won the 1980 Wimbledon singles title, there’ll be even more pressure on her to become the first Australian to win the Australian Open women’s singles title since Chris O’Neil’s triumph in 1978.
These days in women’s tennis, a lofty ranking isn’t particularly indicative of elite status, but now that Stosur’s taken this major step and proven that she can indeed handle the pressure on the big stage, she might be ready to pursue the kind of consistent excellence that would see wins like Sunday’s considered anything but a surprise.
