Stosur’s Performance in Australia Is Greatly Improved

Written by: Staff on 14th January 2013

Stosur's Performance in Australia Is Greatly Improved

epa03526872 Samantha Stosur of Australia hits a return during her second round match against Jie Zheng of China at the International Sydney Tennis in Sydney, 07 January 2013. EPA/TRACEY NEARMY AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

After an embarrassing first round exit at last year’s Australian Open and two more initial defeats in this year’s warm up tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney, Samantha Stosur breathed a sigh of relief after surviving the potential minefield that awaited her on Rod Laver Arena.

Stosur’s 7-6,6-3 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Kai-Chen Chang, was her six matches in Australia dating back more than a year and she admitted: “Obviously I feel very happy and a little bit relieved. I desperately wanted to win out there today.

“It’s just nice to finally get through that first round. Hopefully I can loosen up a little bit and keep playing better and better.

“I still think there is a load of room for improvement at the moment, but it’s just the start of the tournament. Hopefully each match I can improve.”

The 2011 US Open champion accepts the fact she is saddled with the weight of national expectation in the women’s singles and in ten previous Australian Open attempts, has never progressed further than the fourth round.

Stosur’s New York triumph of 16 months ago put increased pressure on her shoulders when it came to her ‘home’ Grand Slam and she said: “I think once you’ve come to that pinnacle of your sport, winning a big title, and beating one of the greatest players ever in a Grand Slam final, it’s pretty hard not to always think, ‘OK, I was able to do that, I played great the whole two weeks, I played an unbelievable final, where’s that gone’?

“You know you’re capable of it, and you want to do it every day, but it’s not easy. ‘You start to think, ‘oh, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that’. Well, no, you’ve just got to stand up and hit the ball, really.”

Stosur is playing with the added pressure of knowing her off season training schedule was decimated by an ankle operation just six weeks ago for the removal of a bone spur that had severely limited the range of motion in the joint.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Australian Open, Brisbane, Rod Laver Arena, Samantha Stosur, Sports, Sydney, Taipei’s Kai-Chen Chang, Tennis