Sam Stosur quietly snuck into the French Open quarter final last night.
There was not quite the fanfare that accompanied Nick Kygrios’ two quarter final appearances at Wimbledon 2014 and the Australian Open in 2015 – or for that matter Leyton Hewitt winning the first round of the Australian Open in recent years.
Perhaps Sam’s crime is to perform better on the clay in France and the hard courts of Flushing Meadows rather than the hallowed grass of Wimbledon or at her home slam in Melbourne.
A quick review of Sam’s career provides revealing insights into her success.
Stosur won the 2011 US Open singles final with a devastating 6-2, 6-3 victory over one of the greatest tennis players of all time in Serena Williams.
The year before she appeared in her first grand slam final at the French Open losing to Francesca Schiavane.
En route to the final Stosur defeated Justine Henin, 2–6, 6–1, 6–4, World No. 1 Serena Williams, 6–2, 6–7(2), 8–6 (saving a match point in the final set) and former World No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6–1, 6–2.
She has also reached the semi-finals of the French Open on two occasions and the quarter finals of the US Open on two occasions.
To put these achievements in perspective, one has to go back 31 years when the great Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the last Australian woman to succeed at a grand slam.
And what about the prospects of our next female grand slam winner? In this year’s French Open Daria Gavrilova (ranked 46) lost in the first round to 75th-ranked Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.
The only other Australian in the draw was Arina Rodionova, the recipient of a wildcard, who was bundled out in straight sets in the first round by 76th-ranked Ana Konjuh.
While Daria will no doubt do Australia proud in the future she is hardly a product of Australia’s junior development program and in any case, do we really, seriously expect her to be a grand slam winner?
A look at the rankings beyond Daria is hardly encouraging with Casey Dellacqua sitting at 180 the next in line followed by 26-year-old Rodianova at 238.
Perhaps our best prospect is Ash Bartley recently returned from premature retirement but there are no guarantees as she works her way back through minor tournaments.
When you throw in Sam’s two grand slam ladies doubles victories and three slam mixed doubles titles we surely have a career worthy of celebration.
It is time that we took a pause to acknowledge the career of Sam Stosur. It might be a long time before we have another woman as good as Sam.
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