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22nd seed Australian Samantha Stosur begins her 13th Wimbledon campaign looking to finally get some success at the biggest of the Grand Slams when she plays her first round match against Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic. Join The Roar from around 12:00am (AEST) for live scores and commentary of this game.
It would be fair to say that Stosur struggles badly when the players hit the grass courts at Wimbledon. Making her Wimbledon debut in 2003, Stosur has never missed the biggest major, however has never made it past the third round and has been knocked out in the first round on six occasions.
This makes it by far Stosur’s worst Grand Slam. It isn’t just Wimbledon she struggles at though, as she has only won about 52 per cent of her games on grass, a long way short of her career average winning percentage which sits at about 60 per cent.
To make things even more interesting for Stosur, she has only played in one tournament, or more specifically one game since the grass court season began, which was in Eastbourne.
The game was against the world number 44, Tsvetana Pironkova, and was a straight sets loss for Stosur. This will not do her confidence any favours losing to an opponent that she should have at least taken to three sets.
It is even harder to make a judgement on the form of Danka Kovinic who has not played a game since she was knocked out in the second round of the French Open against Kristina Mladenovic.
She did however try and qualify for the doubles tournament, being knocked out in the first round. At 20 years old Kovinic has actually only played in four grass court games in her entire professional career, with three of those coming last year in a failed qualifying bid for Wimbledon.
The only Grand Slam Kovinic has participated in is the French Open, which she has competed at for the last two years, being knocked out in the first and second rounds.
Kovinic and Stosur have never faced off before this first round meeting and without much of a form guide on grass for either of the players the only thing to really split them is world ranking and experience which makes Stosur a massive favourite coming into the game.
Prediction: Stosur should realistically move onto the second round of Wimbledon, however it is just so hard to say it with any certainty due to her history.
Kovinic will fight hard but not having played any tennis since her second round exit at Rolland Garros makes it hard to think she will mount much of a challenge on Stosur.
Stosur in three sets.
Join The Roar for live scores of this game from 12:00am (AEST) and don’t forget to leave a comment if you’re following along!