Foot Fault!

Yesterday, Sam Stosur demolished Serena Williams 6-2 6-3 in a dramatic but routine championship to capture the very first Grand Slam of her career at Flushing Meadows.

On her feelings after the match:

“Yeah, I’m still kind of speechless. I can’t actually believe I won this tournament. I guess to go out there and play the way I did is obviously just an unbelievable feeling, and you always, you know, hope and you want to be able to do that, but to actually do it, is unbelievable.”

On her tactics against such a tough opponent:

“Well, I think me being able to go after her second set serve, obviously she’s got a huge first serve. If she had not quite on, you get slight chances there on her second. Today I was able to step in and hit my favorite shot nearly off every single one and really put her under pressure every time she missed a first serve. I think that was big. Maybe that made her feel a little more pressure to start making more first serves and it’s a little more difficult. And on serve I felt like my percentages were good. I hit the right spots at the right time and tried to vary it as much as I could. Probably felt like she didn’t get a clean hit on a lot of my balls. As soon as I got opportunities to go for winners or set myself up, I did it. I guess you can always go into a match having your tactics, but you’ve got to execute them. Today I was able to do it very well.”

On Serena sitting next to her and chatting after the match:

All of a sudden, yeah, turned around and she was right next to me, which is kind of unusual. No, she was great, actually. She just said, How do you feel? Are you really excited? It’s unbelievable. I played really well. Yeah, I was really surprised to, you know, see her sitting next to me at that moment in time. I guess it, you know, shows what a nice person she is and what a true champion she is of the sport. To be able to separate the result a few minutes later and be able to come over and congratulate your opponent I thought was pretty classy.

On all the sacrifices made early in her career:

“My story is probably no different to many others, but when I was younger, no doubt my family gave up a lot. My parents especially and my younger brothers probably and my older brother probably got dragged through the tennis clubs more often than not when they didn’t necessarily want to. But I’m lucky that I had a really supportive family. They saw that I had this dream and drive and determination to be a tennis player, and, you know, obviously none of us knew if that was ever gonna pay off. Lucky for me, I had that support behind me. Playing all those small tournaments and, like you said, I’ve slept in train stations and stayed in dodgy hotels and done the hard yards through many places, and it awful pays off in the end. I’d do it all over again if I had to.”

I’ve really warmed to Stosur recently. She is, of course, one of the most understated and quiet players on tour, but at the same time for me, there is just a little something about her personality that is charming. And the way she stepped up against Serena and delivered one of her career performances on such a big stage was nothing short of stunning.

We all saw how she fell apart in Paris last year and she could have easily fallen into a routine of straight sets slam final blowouts like so many before her, but she stepped up to the plate and maximized her game in probably the biggest match of her career. She deserves only respect. Let’s just hope that, unlike her other first-time slam champion counterparts, she can build on this form in the coming months.