Sam Stosur

Stosur’s Wimbledon dream over

28 Jun 2009

Samantha Stosur’s Wimbledon dreams have crumbled after a straight sets defeat to 13th seed Ana Ivanovic in their third-round match on Saturday.

The Serbian glamour girl enjoyed a comfortable 7-5 6-2 win over the 18th-seeded Queenslander who was completely outclassed in the 70-minute match.

Despite the disappointing result for Stosur, who had a fairytale run to the French Open semifinals in early June, she walked away from the tournament having broken her second-round losing streak at Wimbledon.

Stosur’s departure leaves Lleyton Hewitt as the only Australian left in the main draw.

He defeated German Philipp Petzschner in their third-round clash.

Stosur, who was cheered on by a loud group of Australian fans, struggled with Ivanovic’s powerful serve and forehand throughout the match.

Ivanovic, a 2007 Wimbledon semifinalist, stamped her authority from the very first game when she broke the Australian’s serve and then went on to fire off five aces during the set.

Stosur managed to mount a mini-comeback in the eighth game to level the scores at 4-4 and then held her serve.

However, two double faults from the Australian gave Ivanovic the chance she needed to break back and take a 6-5 lead before she held serve and wrapped up the set.

The start of the second set was nearly identical to the first with the Serb breaking in the first game and then again to go 4-0 ahead.

But she blew a match point in the seventh game when she misfired a forehand return into the net off Stosur’s serve.

She made no mistakes in the final game.

With two match points up her sleeve, the Serb let out a squeal of delight as Stosur sent a forehand long.

The 21-year-old Serb stretched her win-loss record against Stosur to 2-1 having also defeated her at the Australian Open in 2006.

Ivanovic is trained by Australia’s Darren Cahill as part of the Adidas player development program.

She next faces defending champion Venus Williams in the fourth round.

Stosur said despite her disappointing third-round exit, she still hoped to crack the top 10 world rankings after enjoying a surge to No.18 following her French Open success.

“It’s disappointing losing always but I guess that’s one thing I can take away – I finally got past the second round,” she told reporters.

“I’ll move on, and it certainly doesn’t make me feel really bad about my tennis or anything like that.

“I know there are things I can work on and I know I can play better than what I did today.”

Stosur said her usually powerful service game had let her down against Ivanovic, especially when she notched up two double faults in the first set.

“My serve is usually really safe,” Stosur told reporters.

“I go for it but it’s got a lot of margin.

“I don’t usually hit too many double faults no matter how hard I try and hit my second serve.

“So today to hit five or six or whatever I hit is not very good.

“She definitely served well and when she did get her first serve in she hit pretty much near the lines and it wasn’t easy for me to get a read on that.”

Tags: Ivanovic, Wimbledon

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