Tennis: Australia's Samantha Stosur Wins Second Round
January 22nd 2009 23:21
Steely-eyed Samantha Stosur set her sights on the world's hottest player after rolling to a straight-sets win over talented German Sabine Lisicki at the Australian Open third round on Thursday. Stosur outclassed Lisicki 6-3 6-4 to join new Fed Cup teammate Jelena Dokic and give Australia two women in the last 32 at the Melbourne Park grand slam for the first time since Alicia Molik and Nicole Pratt made the third round in 2004.
"It's always good to have players still in that middle weekend.
"I'm just really happy that I'm one of them," Stosur said.
Slammin' Sam isn't finished yet, though, and says she's ready to snap Elena Dementieva's 12-match winning streak on Saturday and qualify for the last 16 of her home major for the second time.
Dementieva has opened the year with back-to-back titles in Auckland and Sydney, but the 48th-ranked Stosur said such a scorching run merely added to the pressure on the fourth-seeded Russian.
"She hasn't lost a match all year yet. But I think I'm playing well," Stosur said.
"Hopefully it will be a good match. I'm going to give myself a chance, play well, try and execute the tactics.
"I can't really do any more than that. I've got nothing to lose.
"I'm going to go out there, have fun, enjoy it, use the crowd to my advantage and see what happens."
Regardless of their third-round results, Fed Cup captain David Taylor said, with their form, Stosur and Dokic had all but stitched up Australia's two singles spots for next month's Asia-Oceania qualifying tournament in Perth.
Casey Dellacqua's chances nose-dived with a first-round Open defeat, while fellow West Australian Jessica Moore crashed to a 6-4 6-1 loss to 12th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta on Thursday.
But while Australian women's tennis is suddenly looking on the up, our men's stocks have never been worse following Chris Guccione's 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-1 6-2 defeat at the hands of French sixth seed Gilles Simon.
His departure left no local player in the third round men's singles for the first time in seven years - and without a male in the world's top 100 for the first time ever.
"It wasn't to be today," Guccione said.
"He was hitting a lot of good passing shots, was getting onto my serve a bit."
AAP
"It's always good to have players still in that middle weekend.
"I'm just really happy that I'm one of them," Stosur said.
Slammin' Sam isn't finished yet, though, and says she's ready to snap Elena Dementieva's 12-match winning streak on Saturday and qualify for the last 16 of her home major for the second time.
Samantha Stosur
Dementieva has opened the year with back-to-back titles in Auckland and Sydney, but the 48th-ranked Stosur said such a scorching run merely added to the pressure on the fourth-seeded Russian.
"She hasn't lost a match all year yet. But I think I'm playing well," Stosur said.
"Hopefully it will be a good match. I'm going to give myself a chance, play well, try and execute the tactics.
"I can't really do any more than that. I've got nothing to lose.
"I'm going to go out there, have fun, enjoy it, use the crowd to my advantage and see what happens."
Regardless of their third-round results, Fed Cup captain David Taylor said, with their form, Stosur and Dokic had all but stitched up Australia's two singles spots for next month's Asia-Oceania qualifying tournament in Perth.
Casey Dellacqua's chances nose-dived with a first-round Open defeat, while fellow West Australian Jessica Moore crashed to a 6-4 6-1 loss to 12th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta on Thursday.
But while Australian women's tennis is suddenly looking on the up, our men's stocks have never been worse following Chris Guccione's 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-1 6-2 defeat at the hands of French sixth seed Gilles Simon.
His departure left no local player in the third round men's singles for the first time in seven years - and without a male in the world's top 100 for the first time ever.
"It wasn't to be today," Guccione said.
"He was hitting a lot of good passing shots, was getting onto my serve a bit."
AAP
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