Sam Stosur

Stosur out of Olympics

15 Aug 2008

BEIJING, AAP – The disappointment was all too much for Samantha Stosur as Australia’s Olympic tennis players missed out on a medal for the first time since the sport was reinstated to the Games 20 years ago.

Shattered Stosur – on the comeback trail after almost a year out of the game with a viral illness – burst into tears after her 4-6 6-4 6-4 second-round women’s doubles loss with veteran partner Rennae Stubbs late Thursday night.

Both Australians have held the world No.1 doubles ranking and won multiple grand slam titles and felt a medal was within their grasp.

“I’m just absolutely gutted basically,” Stosur said after wasting a huge opportunity against Spanish fourth seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

“You’ve got to think we had a (medal) chance. We came up against a good team and they were three tight sets and we didn’t come out on top.

“We didn’t play bad. We all played a good match. We were down a break in the first, came back and won it.

“Then things were going well and we got that break back to go 4-all in the second and a bad service game on my serve and, all of a sudden, we’re at a set all and things are tight.

“We’re going game for game in the third and again at 4-all, (we’re) not good enough.”

Stubbs, almost certainly playing her fourth and last Olympics at 37, said the loss cut deep.

“I’m really shattered as well,” Stubbs said. “Sam’s come back so well from the illness and I was sort of there when she was going through it all and, you know, I’ve never won a medal at four Olympics.

“I think we both really wanted this for each other.”

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.