Sam Stosur has gone down 6-3 5-7 7-6(4) in a tight quarterfinal affair with Jelena Jankovic at the Dubai Championships.
Jankovic recovered from from 1-4 down in the final set against Stosur to win in a third set tiebreaker.
She will play Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals after the Dane registered a 6-2 6-4 win over Shahar Peer to reclaim the world No.1 ranking from Kim Clijsters.
Stosur's quarterfinal appearance could still result in a rankings rise to world No.4.
Sam Stosur breezed through the third round of the Dubai Championships with a comfortable victory over Patty Schnyder.
Stosur, seeded No.4, defeated the Swiss Schnyder 6-3 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
“It is uncharted waters for me to make it this far,” Stosur told Eurosport. “I am pleased to be there and hopefully I can go further.
“I thought I played quite well. She is tricky, as she can play with spin then flatten it out, hit a winner and then hit one in the net. I felt I played well the whole way through.”
She will play Jelena Jankovic for a spot in the final four and, if successful, Stosur is guaranteed to rise to a career high ranking of world No.4 next Monday.
Sam Stosur made a near-flawless start to her Dubai Championships campaign, thrashing Sara Errani 6-0 6-1 in their second round match on Wednesday.
The fourth seed was ruthless against her Italian opponent, taking just 55 minutes to reach the third round.
Stosur will take on veteran Swiss Patty Schnyder,who beat Jie Zheng in her second-round clash, for a place in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Francesca Schiavone has given defending champions Italy a commanding 2-1 lead after delivering the knockout blow to Sam Stosur 7-6(1) 3-6 7-5 in a two hour, 44 minute struggle.
Errors from both players punctuated the first set as the Italian and Australian shook off some early nerves. Stosur fought off two break-point opportunities in her first service game of the match – not the start the Queenslander was hoping for.
Schiavone seemed intent on coming to the net in the opening set, but had mixed results. It was a tactic she used successfully in her Roland Garros final victory over Stosur last year, so her line of thinking was sound.
Locked at 4-4 and some hard work from Stosur paid off with two break points on Schiavone’s serve. Despite the Italian’s excellent retrieving, Stosur’s powerful forehand was the difference. A Schiavone lob saved the first then a strong backhand volley took care of the second. A Schiavone backhand into the net gave Stosur her third opportunity, which Schiavone saved with a perfectly executed clutch ace down the T as the world No.4 went on to hold and take a 5-4 lead into the break.
Two unforced errors from Stosur handed Schiavone two set points in the next game – but she saved both, the second showing off her soft hands as she delicately dropped a forehand volley over the net and well out of the Italian’s reach. A backhand winner and good first serve later and the match was once again deadlocked at 5-5.
Fittingly, the first set ended in a tiebreaker. Schiavone raced to a 4-0 lead off the back of some Stosur unforced errors before the Queenslander got a point on the board. Schiavone served out the breaker as Stosur netted a forehand to surrender it 7-1.
A break point for Stosur slipped away as a timid prod down the line was retrieved and volleyed back by Schiavone in the second game of the second set. Two more break point chances presented themselves in the fourth game and Sam snaffled the second with a crosscourt forehand to take a 3-1 lead.
Gusting winds in the second set ripped through the Domain Tennis Centre sending a chill through the more than 2000 spectators and made conditions tough for both players.
With Stosur serving for the second set at 5-3, a brief shower forced the players off court, but not for long. The Australian put aside the memory of the two sets she failed to serve out on day one of the tie in her match with Flavia Pennetta and held to take the set 6-3 and send the rubber to a deciding third set.
Some basic errors from Schiavone gifted Stosur five break points in the third game of the final set but between Schiavone’s retrieval skills and Stosur’s errors, the Italian held what would prove to be a pivotal game.
Games stayed on serve from then on as neither player could crack the code to their opponent’s serve. Schiavone, however, came just centimetres from claiming the win in the 10th game. The Italian had three match points on the Stosur serve, but the world No.5 saved each one and held serve as the see-sawing affair continued.
Schiavone held to take a 6-5 lead before breaking Stosur in the next game to claim the third set 7-5 and give Italy the lead.
"It's obviously very disappointing to come here and lose two matches, especially when they're so tight like that. It's just frustrating not being able to get over the line," said Stosur after the match.
"You feel like you're letting your team down if you can't win a singles match over the weekend."
"Sometimes you go through patches like this and, as long as you keep focusing on your game and working hard and trying to get through it, it's going to turn around and I've got full belief that it can."
Sam Stosur fought valiantly before falling to Flavia Pennetta in three sets in the second rubber of the first day’s play between Italy and Australia.
Jarmila Groth continued her dream summer with a stirring 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3 comeback win over world No.4 Francesca Schiavone before Stosur came up painfully short against her career nemesis Flavia Pennetta in the second singles rubber.
Pennetta had never dropped a set in three previous meetings with Stosur and once again imposed her mental will over the world No.5 to squeeze out a tense 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-4 success that left the tie locked at 1-1.
Photos: My week in Hobart with the Fed Cup team
Just three teams have managed to salvage victory from 2-0 down since the best-of-five-match format was adopted for World Group ties in 1995 and Pennetta conceded “everyone can breathe” now after the powerful Italians narrowly averted such a disastrous first-day deficit.
Stosur could well have won in straight sets but was twice broken to love while trying to serve out the first set from 5-4 up and then when attempting to close out the second from 5-3 in front.
“Any time you serve for the first two sets of the match, it’s obviously disappointing losing,” Stosur said.
“I wanted to get a better result against her today. It was better on the scoreboard, but still not a win.”
Captain David Taylor also rued Australia’s near miss.
“You sit there in the press conference on Friday and say ‘yeah, I’d take one-all’, but it’s one-all and I feel like we had a pretty good opportunity to be two-zero,” he said.
“Having said that, wow, what an unbelievable debut from Jarmila – to play Fed Cup for your country for the first time and beat the No.4 in the world and have a career-best win.
“So, from that perspective, it’s just fantastic for our team.
“And Sam played a girl that she hadn’t previously won a set from and ending up serving for two sets and eventually lost a very close match.
“So I’m very proud of both my girls and the way that they fought hard. If they can fight like that tomorrow, then we can win.”
Stosur vowed to regroup for her French Open final rematch against Schiavone in Sunday’s first reverse singles rubber.
Groth then takes on Pennetta for the first time since their only career encounter in Toronto four years ago.
Stosur leads Schiavone 5-2 head-to-head and a repeat of her success over the Italian in their last-up clash at the WTA Championships in Doha in October would give Groth the chance to secure Australia a semifinal in April against either Russia or France.
“She played great today so, if I can try and put us in a position from where we can win, that would be fantastic and take a little bit of pressure off Jarka,” Stosur said.
Taylor has named dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anastasia Rodionova to partner veteran Rennae Stubbs in the doubles against Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani.
But team captains have until 15 minutes after the fourth singles rubber to change their line-ups and Taylor hasn’t ruled out drafting in Stosur, a multiple grand slam doubles champion with a 6-0 win-loss record in Cup doubles matches.
TV Schedule
Watch the Australia versus Italy Fed Cup World Group clash live on Fox Sports on 6 February or follow the live scores on tennis.com.au.
Sunday 6 January TV guide
The replay of Saturday’s first two singles rubbers will be shown at 9:00 am on Sunday on Fox Sports 3 (no red button required), immediately before the live coverage of Day 2, which begins at 11 am.
Samantha Stosur is ready to carry a monster load if asked to play both singles and doubles in Australia’s Fed Cup showdown with two-time defending champions Italy in Hobart.
For Australia’s long-awaited return to the elite eight-nation World Group for the first time since 2004 is to extend beyond this weekend, Stosur may well need to pick up all three points in the best-of-five-match tie.
That is a particularly tall order given the world No.5 faces her career nemesis Flavia Pennetta in Saturday’s second singles match before backing up against her French Open final conqueror Francesca Schiavone in Sunday’s first reverse singles rubber.
Australian captain David Taylor has named dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anastasia Rodionova to partner veteran Rennae Stubbs in Sunday’s potentially decisive doubles rubber, but won’t rule out sending an SOS for his star charge.
“Look, Sam’s won a couple of Grand Slams obviously in doubles and been No.1 in the world too,” Stosur told AAP.
“We’ve picked that doubles team thinking that Sam might be a bit fatigued and whatever, but it will be based on the level of Sam’s fatigue.”
Stosur hasn’t played doubles since Wimbledon last July but vowed to step up if the tie was deadlocked at 2-2 come Sunday afternoon.
“If they want me to play, then I’ll be more than happy to do that,” she said.
In the meantime, Stosur will have her hands full against Pennetta, a rival the Queenslander has yet to win a set against in three career encounters.
“I have struggled against her,” Stosur admitted.
“She can handle my pace very well. She doesn’t have a huge weapon but she does everything extremely well and she’s very consistent.
“So it’s definitely a tough match-up. But if I can play well and learn something from all those losses that I’ve had against her, hopefully I can turn it into a win.”
Fed Cup rookie Jarmila Groth will lead Australia into battle in Saturday’s opening singles match against Schiavone.
Groth and Schiavone have never previously met and the match features two players enjoying career-high rankings.
Groth has climbed to No.31 in the world and is quietly confident of springing an upset after winning the Hobart International at the picturesque venue only last month.
Schiavone, though, insists she too is playing the best tennis of her life after rising to world No.4 following her run to last month’s Australian Open quarterfinals in Melbourne, where the Italian veteran outlasted Svetlana Kuznetsova in the longest women’s match in Grand Slam history, a four-hour, 44-minute epic.
In a tie tipped to go down to the wire, Taylor and Schiavone both said they’d be happy with a one-all scoreline after day one.
Taylor said although Australia had been heavily dependant on Stosur in the past, he hoped the team’s vastly-improved all-round strength would secure a famous victory.
“Sam’s definitely been the stalwart of the team. I mean, she’s won her last 12 Fed Cup matches and the reason why we’re here is a big part of Sam’s success,” he said.
“But I think maybe those days where we’re relying on Sam to get two [singles] wins are closing hopefully.
“They must be. I think Jarka [Jarmila] can beat anyone and she can actually win both her rubbers here.”
Some tickets remain for this weekend’s Fed Cup World Group tie in Hobart. Tickets can be purchased from Ticketek.
The Australia v Italy Fed Cup World Group tie will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 3 this weekend. View the TV guide details here
New World No.5 Sam Stosur hasn’t lost a Fed Cup rubber since 2007, but is that 12-match winning streak about to come to an end?
After six years in the Fed Cup wilderness, the Australian team fought its way back into the eight-team World Group at the end of 2010 only to draw defending champions Italy in the opening round, which will be played this weekend at Hobart’s Domain Tennis Centre – home to one of the most picturesque centre courts in the world.
The view from the stadium seats is stunning – all 2500 fans have an up close and personal view of the centre court and many can also look out to the Derwent River, which is regularly dotted with yachts.
It’s hard to imagine that in just a couple of days this serene setting will play host to a fierce battle spearheaded by two of the world’s top 5 players and last year’s French Open finalists – and both are looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s always fun to play Frank,” Stosur told tennis.com.au. “She’s quite emotional on court and really gets into it and has a good time. I think all of our matches have been pretty good, so hopefully this weekend will be no different.”
French Open champion Schiavone is under no illusions as to what kind of a match it will be.
“It will be a tough match,” said Schiavone. “We have a good ranking, good results [and] we’ve played a lot of times.”
Despite there being a lot of talk about this one rubber, there are still four others up for grabs, a point not lost on both Stosur and Schiavone.
“It would be nice if I could do well, it would obviously set the rest of them up to be ahead. I’ll do my best [but] it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win all because your No.1 player wins, it is a team effort.”
“I think is not just that one, the big match [Schiavone versus Stosur], I think there are others [that will be] big match[es] and you will see. I think she is much more important this time,” said Schiavone while pointing to Italian No.2 Flavia Pennetta.
With all four of their team ranked in the top 50, and three Fed Cup championships in the past five years, including consecutive titles in 2009 and 2010, this team demands respect – and gets it.
“They’re a great team, obviously they play very well together [and] get behind each other and really have a good group,” said Stosur.
“I think they’ve proven they’re probably the strongest team in the world at the moment, so it’s a tough ask for us but I think we’ve also got a good team and we enjoy getting on the sidelines and cheering for each other and doing whatever we can.”