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The last Australian in the main draw of the women’s singles at the Australian Open is out. Sam Stosur has been defeated 6-4 6-4 by CoCo Vandeweghe on Pat Rafter Arena last night.
In a dominant display of serving and power, the American out powered the Australian, to progress to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Each set only needed one break for the American and they both came in the 5th game.
In return, Vandeweghe’s serve gave Stosur nothing, as she served impressively to restrict her opponent.
11 aces, 60% of 1st serves in, and just 13 points lost on serve in two sets of tennis highlighted the dominance.
The American also provided Stosur with no chances to break, and hit 29 winners to Stosur’s 20.
It was an impressive display from the American who was playing qualifiers at the same time 12 months ago.
Stosur didn’t play bad, far from it. She just played a couple of bad points, that gave her opponent an opportunity to break.
Vandeweghe did that and capitalised on the chance.
Stosur admitted that to the media after the match.
“I think she had a great night out on the court tonight. I mean, there’s not that much to say. It came down to a couple (of) points. I don’t feel like I played a bad match at all by any means. I didn’t get a break point. I didn’t feel like I did much wrong.”
Tonight’s loss by Stosur was the 11th by a seed in the opening two rounds of the Australian Open.
“It proves that almost anyone can beat anyone. I think it does show the depth in women’s tennis, especially at the moment. No match is a given, that’s for sure.”
Stosur will now focus on Fed Cup duty for Australia as they take on Germany next month in Stuttgart.
She also plans to play the big events in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami over the next two months.
First things first though, she is still in doubles with Svetlana Kuznetsova.
They face the Rodionova’s – Arina and Anastasia – on Show Court three later today.
Sam Stosur, the last remaining Australian woman in the singles draw, will take on CoCo Vandeweghe in the 2nd round of the 2015 Australian Open on Rod Laver Arena tonight.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from around 10:00pm AEDT.
After Casey Dellacqua, Jarmila Gajdsova and Ajla Tomljanovic lost in the second round, Stosur will try to avoid the same fate tonight.
It promises to be a tough match for Stosur as Vandeweghe had a breakout season last year on the tour. She cracked the top 50 for the first time and also won her first ever WTA single event.
After qualifying for the Topshelf Open grass event in the Netherlands, Vandeweghe powered her way to the final, to secure her first title at the top level of the sport. The American has continued her form from last year, into this year, with a quarter final appearance at the Auckland event in the first week of January.
She also defeated Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion, 6-2 6-2 in the opening round to progress to tonight’s meeting.
Not to be outdone, Stosur was also impressive, in the opening round of her home Grand Slam. Against a potentially tricky opponent for the Australian, Stosur was dominant, as she defeated Monica Niculescu 6-4 6-1 in 79 minutes.
The Aussie hit 34 winners, and attacked Niculescu, as she nullified the frustrating game that the Romanian can play on the WTA tour.
Tonight’s match will be completely different to Stosur’s match on Tuesday. Vandeweghe’s strength is her power. Her serve and her forehand are big strengths.
When asked about her opponent, after her first round win, Stosur said this about her.
“CoCo has one of the biggest serves on tour. [She] doesn’t really hold back on any shot, whether it’s serve or groundstrokes. She’s a big girl. She has lots of power. You got to kind of combat that with what you got to do. That’s hard.”
It will be a match dominated by baseline rallies, winners, and unforced errors. How Stosur handles this type of match will be interesting. Can she hold her nerves in front of her home crowd to hit enough winners in the match? We saw a few shanks from her forehand in her first round match.
She will be looking to minimise that tonight by eliminating the nerves as quickly as she can. When she did that against Niculescu, she played some great tennis. That will be the key tonight.
These two players have faced each other twice before in the WTA. The first match was an ironic one for Stosur. In the 2nd round of the US Open in 2011, Stosur faced Vandeweghe, and won 6-4 6-3.
The Australian would later win the US Open by defeating Serena Williams in the final. It would be pretty awesome if she repeated that this year with a win tonight. In the other match between the two, which happened last year, Vandeweghe would win a tight contest 5-7 7-5 7-5 at the Miami Masters.
Tonight’s match promises to be a similar contest with nothing separating these two players.
Vandeweghe will trouble Stosur at times tonight. Her power will provide her with plenty of winners and the Australian will be powerless. I expect this match to go to three sets.
How Stosur handles her nerves during the encounter, when it becomes tight, will be interesting. If she falters, then Vandeweghe will win. If she doesn’t, then Stosur can win.
Unfortunately for everyone I predict a Vandeweghe win tonight. The power of her game will be a worry for Stosur and I’m not sure her nerves will handle the occasion tonight.
Stosur will win a set but lose in three sets to the rising American.
PREDICTION – CoCo Vandeweghe 2-1
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