Stosur Finds Pressure Playing in Australia

Written by: Staff on 10th January 2012

Stosur Finds Pressure Playing in Australia |

At last September’s US Open the calmness and refusal to buckle under pressure of eventual champion Samantha Stosur was admirable, regardless of the histrionics going on from Serena Williams across the net. But as soon as the Australian heroine sets foot on home soil, she appears to completely unravel.

To use Stosur’s own words, the feeling is devastating . “All of a sudden, it’s just like a bombshell hits you,” she admitted after searching for ways to describe her dilemma.

Now after being pitched out of the Brisbane International at the second round stage to world no.54 Iveta Benesova, Stosur also lost out early at the Apia International in Sydney to the woman who denied her a French Open title a year and a half ago, Francesca Schiavone.

All of Australia of course wants the heroine Stosur to do well but she is equally limited by the self-inflicted pressure she puts on herself to succeed.

“I think the whole emotional side of things really took over today,” she said after her emphatic 6-2, 6-4 loss to Schiavone, ranked 11 in the world but unseeded because of the abundance of talent at Sydney’s Homebush this week. “I never felt like I was able to be loose and free with the way I wanted to play.

“I think it’s just the whole expectation I put on myself, too. You do all the work leading up. . . and then today happens.”

Sixth-ranked Stosur suffered similar ignominy last year, losing early at Brisbane and Sydney before being pitched out of the Australian Open at the third round by Petra Kvitova who was then ranked only 28th. She then lost both matches in the Fed Cup against Italians Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta and didn’t truly recapture her form until reaching the final in Rome three months later.

The troubled 27 year-old tried to be rational as she added: “’OK, I had two pretty disappointing tournaments, but I’ve also had that in previous years and got to Melbourne and played better and handled it better.

”The last few years I have lost third and fourth rounds, but to very good players. I guess that’s definitely one thing I can take away from it.”

Topics: Samantha Stosur