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The Australian file: Stosur in winning form ahead of French Open

Samantha Stosur is on a charge at Roland Garros. (AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY).
Roar Guru
27th May, 2015
0

Welcome to version two of the Australian file. Here is what happened last week as Australians rocked the ATP, WTA and ITF.

ATP
There were two ATP events this week before the French Open, with the field travelling to Nice and Geneva as they prepared for the second Grand Slam of the year.

In Geneva only Marinko Matosevic played in the main draw, losing to Albert Ramos.

However Nice had four Australians in the main draw. It was supposed to be five, but Thanasi Kokkinakis took the opportunity to rest after his Challenger win in Bordeaux.

Kokkinakis was scheduled to play fellow Australian James Duckworth, and avoiding his compatriot led to a great week for the New South Wales player, who made his second quarter-final at an ATP event, defeating Frances Tiafoe and Quentin Halys, before losing to Borna Coric in the last eight match.

Sam Groth, who qualified for the event, also lost to Coric, in the first round of the event.

Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic both struggled with injury and were forced to retire from the event.

Tomic, who played Gianni Mina, retired after the first set in the first round with an illness. Kyrgios defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in Round 1, then was forced to retire with an elbow injury in Round 2.

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Both are expected to be fit for the French Open.

WTA
Nurnberg and Strasbourg, in Germany and France, hosted the final two women’s events before Roland Garros.

No Australians made the main draw in Nurnberg with Arina Rodionova the only Australian involved in qualifying, losing to Alison Van Uytvanck.

In Strasbourg, Australia had Ajla Tomljanvoic and Sam Stosur competing in the event. The two faced each other in the quarter final, where Stosur prevailed and then made the final after a strong semi-final win over Sloane Stephens.

In a tough final, after conceding the first set, Stosur secured her seventh WTA title and her first of 2015.

It was a fantastic week for the Queenslander, after getting a wildcard for the event. She didn’t have time to savour the victory though as she immediately travelled to Paris for the French Open.

https://twitter.com/bambamsam30/status/602187126805897216

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ATP Challenger
Just one ATP Challenger event was held last week as the field headed to Eskisehir, Turkey.

Matt Ebden, who has made three straight semi-finals at this level, made the quarter finals here, losing to title winner Paolo Lorenzi.

Ebden has scored 131 points in his last five events.

ITF
40 Australians competed in 32 ITF events around the world last week.

Leading the charge was 11 men in the Croatia event in Bol, and nine women in the 10,000 Bangkok event.

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Our best result was Gavin Van Peperzeel making the Bol semi-final.

Meanwhile, Blake Mott also made the semi-final in Korea, where he lost to eventual tournament winner Daniel Nguyen.

For the women, the best single result came in Karuizawa, Japan, as Abbie Myers made the quarter final at the $25,000 grass event.

In Bangkok, at the 10,000 event, both Nicole Collie and Zoe Hives made the quarter final. South Australian Collie had better success in doubles, as she teamed up with fellow Australian Deeon Mladin for the title – Collie’s third doubles title and Mladin’s first.

Mladin (From Deeon Mladin’s Instagram)

Rankings
After his strong performances recently, Matt Ebden moves 15 spots on Monday to 191 in the world. It is the first time since November 2014 the Western Australian has been inside the top 200.

Van Peperzeel moves up 13 spots after his semi-final performance in Romania. He is 338 in the world and will go further up again in two weeks.

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The biggest faller of the week was Chris Letcher, who fell 335 spots to 1584 in the world.

After her win in Strasbourg, Stosur moves to 22 in the world. She maintains her position as the number 1 Aussie in the WTA and the ATP.

Ajla Tomljanovic, with her quarter-final in Strasbourg, moves up five places to 58.

Ash Barty, who is still away from the game, was the biggest faller as she is now 397 in the world.

This week
All eyes are on the French Open, with 12 Australians competing in the main draw. A full wrap on that next week including what happened in qualifying for the event.

One Challenger is being held, in Vicenza, with John Millman involved.

Finally, plenty of ITF events are being held, with one happening in the small Pacific island of Guam.

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All of that will be updated next week in the next edition of the Australian file.

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