Sam Stosur’s refusal to represent her country in this weekend’s Fed Cup is a stone-cold snub to those who have nurtured her career and given her the opportunity to play tennis professionally.
Instead of opting to don the green and gold, Stosur remained in Europe to continue her preparation for the claycourt season and battle to retain her top-10 WTA ranking.
While Stosur has been a loyal servant to Australia in the past (32 matches in 19 ties since 2003), her absence in Melbourne has effectively cost her country its place in the World Group.
Jarmila Groth (ranked 30) and Anastasia Rodionova (72) battled valiantly at Glen Iris in Melbourne’s inner-east, but went down 2-3 overall at the hands of Lesia Tsurenko (131) and Olga Savchuk (144), despite holding two match points in Sunday’s deciding doubles.
There is little doubt that had the world No. 6 made the trip, the outcome would be vastly different.
People can and will point to Stosur’s right to set her own schedule. There is of course no contractual obligation to play Fed Cup, but Australia should expect and receive more from our best player in a time of need.
What about the years and dollars that Tennis Australia has invested in Stosur’s development? Shouldn’t there be an expectation that players make themselves available for international team events whenever possible?
Adding murkiness to the discussion is the fact that Australia’s Fed Cup coach, Dave Taylor, moonlights as Sam Stosur’s personal coach – or is that the other way around? How did Tennis Australia allow this conflict of interest to occur?
It’s akin to Sir Alex Ferguson managing England and deciding to withdraw Wayne Rooney from the squad just prior to an important Manchester United game. There would be outrage, and rightly so.
I don’t doubt Taylor’s credentials as a coach or a team manager, but the current situation is a farce. It lacks transparency and creates a questionable perception of Tennis Australia.
The national team coach should not be in a position where he’s defending the right of Australia’s best player not to play in the Fed Cup.
As previously mentioned, Stosur has been a tremendously loyal servant at international level throughout her career. But you’d really hope that she could have jumped on a plane and returned home for a couple of days to guarantee Australia’s World Group status and do her bit for the sport that’s helped her earn more than $6 million, not including endorsements, by age 27.
At the end of the day, perhaps Australia is simply a victim of circumstance. Of the nine Fed Cup ties played this weekend, this was the only one to be contested outside Europe, with a tenth tie for Japan postponed.
More accurately however, Australia is a victim of complacency. Speaking to the media in Melbourne on Sunday evening, Taylor said, “You’re a point away from competing for the Fed Cup and now we’re fighting for our Fed Cup lives again. We’re one point away.”
“If Sam comes back in the team, Jarka keeps improving, wow, you’re a chance to win the whole Fed Cup, now we’re just trying to get back in the World Group. So one point can mean the difference in that, and that’s very hard to accept at this stage, but we don’t have an option other than to regroup.”
If that’s not living proof that the age-old adage of taking it ‘one match at a time’ isn’t true, then I don’t know what is. Sure. Australia might have been a chance to vie for the whole damn thing, but now we’re out.
Forget about Rodionova failing to win a rubber all weekend and forget about blown match points in the concluding doubles; this tie was lost at the selection table by not insisting that Stosur show up.
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