Aussies Around the Globe – Hewitt injured, US Open results and Sam Stosur

Written by: Global Chick on 7th September 2011

Aussies Around the Globe – Hewitt injured, US Open results and Sam Stosur |

Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt pulled out of this year’s US Open with a foot injury. Hewitt was awarded a wildcard into the Winston Salem Open the week before the Open where he lost in the first round to world no. 81 Blaz Kavcic in the straight sets. The foot injury has been bothering Hewitt this whole season.

The 2001 US Open Champion had gained US Open main draw entry via a reciprocal wildcard agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia. Rusty said after his first round loss at the Winston Salem Open, “I’m still struggling a little bit with the foot. I knew he was a good competitor coming into the match. Before the Open “I’ll have to hit a lot of balls, get a lot of treatment and see hat happens.” A few moments later Hewitt’s manager David Drysdale confirmed the Aussie would not compete at Flushing Meadows.

Lleyton Hewitt was replaced in the US Open main draw by Marinko Matosevic, who was given the wildcard entry by Tennis Australia. The 26-year-old is currently ranked No. 148. The Melburnian had to pull out in the first round against No. 24 seed Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela. Matosevic sprained his ankle at 3-1 in the first set.

Matosevic was replaced in the qualifying by American based Aussie Carsten Ball, son of Sid Ball a former Australian professional tennis player. Ball won his first round against Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar 6-4 6-1. The Aussie’s hopeful was stopped by American Rajeev Ram in the second round 6-4 6-7 (2) 1-6.

Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic were the only two Australian men in the main draw. Tomic drew American qualifier Michael Yani in the first round. Yani was not good enough to threaten the young rising Aussie player, who won in straight sets 6-3 6-4 6-4.

Croatian Marin Cilic was next up for Tomic. Cilic destroyed Tomic only giving him three games over three sets. There was a lot of talk about Tomic playing Federer in the third round but unfortunately the opportunity never occurred.

Victorian Veteran Peter Luczak was defeated in the first round of the qualies by the number eight seed Slovakian Greg Zemlja in straight sets.

Injury prone Chris Guccione also lost in the first round. Canadian Vasek Pospisil was too good for Gooch and took him down 7-6 (4) 7-5.

The most successful of the Australians in the US Open qualifying event was Greg Jones. The World No. 209 won two rounds before losing in the third and final round to Japanese player Go Soeda.

Matthew Ebden was seeded No. 14 in the qualifying. Ebden won his first round against fellow Aussie James Lemke only losing three games. His hopes of qualifying were squashed by American wildcard Bradley Khlan in the following round.

The four Australian women in the qualifying didn’t have much luck this year. Olivia Rogowska was defeated by Petra Rampre of Slovakia in the first round. Sally Peers was squashed by Silvia Soler-Espinosa also in the first round. Isabella Holland was crushed by the No. 4 seed Romanian Edina Gallovits-Hall 6-1 6-0.

Wimbledon Girls’ Champion Ashleigh Barty was given a wildcard into qualifying. She was taken out by Julia Glushko of Israel 6-4 6-4.

In the ladies’ main draw Australia was represented by Jarmila Gajdosova, Casey Dellacqua, Jelena Dokic, Anastasia Rodionova and Samantha Stosur.

Sam Stosur is still going. She will play Vera Zvonareva, the number two seed today in the quarterfinal.

Gajdosova, the No. 29 seed won her opening round and then lost to Vanja King 6-2 6-0. Australian wildcard Casey Dellacqua was unsuccessful in her US Open campaign this year. She lost to Alize Cornet of France 7-5 6-0.

Jelena Dokic started the tournament with a first round win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus. The number eleven seed Jelena Jankovic got the better of Dokic in the second round. Anastasia Rodionova was a first round casualty against Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.

Ashley Fisher, Stephen Huss and Paul Hanley played in the men’s doubles this year. Fisher and Huss teamed up and lost in the first round to Emmrich of Germany and Siljestrom of Sweden.

Paul Hanley, a former Top 10 doubles player partnered tall Belgian Dick Norman. Hanley Norman reached the third round before losing to the Indo/Pak Express Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-2 6-3.

2001 US Open Champion Rennae Stubbs and Casey Dellacqua got off to a bad start of the doubles. The Australian duo lost to Sorana Cirstea and Ayumi Moria in the opening round.

Sammy Stosur and Sabine Lisicki didn’t make it past the first round. They were defeated by Eleni Daniilidou and Polona Hercog.

Jarmila Gajdosova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won two rounds before losing in the third round to the Number three seeds Leisel Huber and Lisa Raymond.

Good luck to Sam Stosur today against Vera Zvonareva.