Everything seemed to be on track for Sam Stosur to make it to the Australian Open, perhaps another Grand Slam final appearance. Serena didn’t make it to the tournament, Venus got hurt, and Caroline is under a lot of pressure to win. Sam had a couple easier first-round matches and looked set to win his third, until a hard-hitting Czech named Petra Kvitova came along. Sam was broken early in the match by Kvitova, but she again leveled things at 4-4 in the first set. Stosur was up 6-5 and 30 points up against Kvitova’s serve in the first set, but he couldn’t break Petra that game with some untimely unforced errors. Stosur also led 3-0 in the first set tiebreaker, but Kvitova hit two deep backhand winners, a forehand winner and a well-timed ace to come back and take the first set.
Kvitova ended up hitting 35 winners, to Sam’s 20 unforced errors during the match. Petra had Sam running early in the points, landing many of her serves wide to Sam’s backhand on the court side. In my opinion, Sam was backhanding too often, and his slice backhand ended up crossing the court into Petra’s powerful forehand, where Petra quickly took control of the point.
When Sam plays a right-handed player, this strategy serves him well. Sam ends up hitting his strength against most of the player’s weaknesses. This opens the court for her to hit a forehand winner. Against a lefty like Kvitova, her game plan needed to change.
The fans did their part and worked hard to keep Sam in, they sang cheer after cheer, but in the end it wasn’t enough. The local public was stunned and will have to wait another year.
Sam hasn’t had the ideal start to the 2011 season that he had hoped for, exiting early in the first three tournaments of the year, twice in the second round, in Brisbane and Sydney, and the third round at the Australian Open. Petra Kvitova won the Brisbane event.
Sam is too good and too dedicated to let early season frustrations dictate the rest of her year. She will come back strong and go back to a Grand Slam final if she doesn’t win one soon.