Magnificent Gisela Ends Stosur's Dreams

The fact that Samantha Stosur is struggling this year is no surprise to anyone. However, I think that many were expecting her to recapture the brilliance and to shine once more on the Parisian clay. For the last two seasons the Aussie was red-hot at Roland Garros, making her first Slam semifinal in 2009 before reaching the final last year. She was genuinely impressive in 2010 when she defeated the best players in the world, i.e. ‘Claycourt Queen’ Justine Henin, world number 1 Serena Williams and former world no.1 Jelena Jankovic, just to fell short in the final to a surprisingly tough Francesca Schiavone.

While last year she dominated the claycourt season, this year her preparation was flawed, the only noteworthy performance being the Rome final, where she lost to Russian Maria Sharapova. Nevertheless, she started her favourite tournament strongly, posing easy victories over Czech Iveta Benesova and Romanian Simona Halep. It didn’t take long though and in her third round clash she run into deep trouble. Her opponent, Argentinean Gisela Dulko who tops the doubles' rankings alongside Italian Flavia Pennetta, is renowned for her claycourt skills. However, having lost the two previous encounters with Stosur on this surface, she seemed like an easy target for the powerful Australian. She started the strongest though, quickly establishing a 5-2 advantage. Samantha fought back, but Gisela hold on to win the first set 6-4. Stosur caught fire, unleashing her most efficient weapons and storming through to a decider after winning the set 6-1. Just when things seemed to be heading her way, Samantha lost the momentum and with it four consecutive games, allowing Gisela to get back into the match. Serving at 5-3, the Argentinean quickly raced to a 40-0 lead and put the matter to rest at the first time of asking. After a convincing display, she has now reached the French Open last 16 for a second time, having made it this far in 2006 when she succumbed to Anna Lena Groenefeld.

This performance comes to capture what has been a relatively good claycourt season for Dulko. After winning in Acapulco, the fourth round of the French Open reconfirms her as one of surface’s most exquisite specialists. For Stosur, the loss marks yet another disappointment. Not being able to defend the last year’s points could cause her the place among the best 10 players in the world.

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