Australia’s Samantha Stosur, left, shakes hands with Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic. AP Photo/Michel Eule
Justine Henin, four time French Open champion and former number one. No worries! Serena, the current number one. No worries! Jelena Jankovic, another former number one. No worries!
This was a commanding performance by Samantha Stosur on Court Philippe Chatrier. The star was her kicking serve, both first and second. This serve kicks higher than the chorus line at Folies Bergere.
Sam started the match with a comfortable hold and Jankovic followed suit.
Stosur is down 0-15 in the third game when she pulls out her trusty first serve and follows up with a deft one-two to go to 30-15. An ace down the line gives her game point and she closes it out with another solid serve.
The fourth game is pivotal and two crisp cross court forehands from Sam coupled with a Jankovic error gives the Aussie two break points.
Jankovic regroups to deuce.
A blistering return gives Stosur another break point. This time she seals it with a forehand past the flailing Jankovic.
Sam consolidates this lead with a service hold to love, the final point being a screaming first serve for 4-1. Jankovic unraveled as Stosur broke again and it was now becoming embarrassing watching Jankovic.
Stosur won it comfortably, but two wild shots on her way to winning the set showed she was vulnerable.
Jankovic held her first game of the second set to love and promptly broke Stosur to lead 2-0.
This game can change so quickly.
Stosur visibly took a deep breath and the third game became a dog-fight. Jankovic was finding her range and showed why she is ranked so high.
It is 40-15 to Jankovic and Stosur hits two deep and precise returns to level the game at deuce. This is the sign of a true champion: the ability to stop a resurgent opponent and impose her will.
Stosur could have gone 3-0 down but instead it is 2-1 and normal service has been restored.
The fourth game shows Stosur is no slouch on the backhand wing, either. But she faces another break point when she mishits a return. No worries!
A kicking first serve and back to deuce.
Jankovic refuses to lie down. Another break point and another unreturnable first serve. A Stosur double fault has her staring at another break point.
This time a second serve kicker rescues her. There is no holding Sam back now and she closes the fourth game to go 2-2.
The fight had now gone out of Jankovic.
A delicate drop shot from Stosur has Jankovic down 0-40 and before you can blink it is 3-2 to Stosur, with her serve to come. Stosur was winning 81 percent of her first serves with Jankovic struggling at 34 percent.
Jankovic looks to her coach and cuts a forlorn figure as Sam closes out the match in emphatic fashion for a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Interviewed post-match by Cedric Pioline, Sam is delighted: “I can’t believe I’m in the final. I can’t wait for Saturday.” Pioline asks her if she is ready and Sam says: “Saturday is as good a day as any. Why not?”
Sam will play the 17th seed Francesca Schiavone on Saturday, and barring a major form reversal, Australia will have its first Grand Slam women’s single champion since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.
Australia, stand and salute your next world Number One.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium,there are regulations for the width and height of the seam. Identical balls can feel different in different hands. Just like the tennis players discarding balls I have picked one ball over another at training. You see captains poring over replacement balls on TV. Pre match the captains choose from a box of new balls..all supposedly identical but obviously they feel different. Something about the natural cowhide as opposed to poly derivatives. Does cowhide have a soul? And is this what makes the ball "talk"?
Plasmodium
Guest
VINAY - I would have thought that micro-measurement machines could be able to determine the difference between the seams of the two balls. Of course, when you play a game where the ball bounces before reaching the batsman, a huge variable is introduced as you point out. Still on the subject of equipment, and the Management wanting to amp up the excitement, Google Goalkeepers Dislike Official World Cup Ball - NY Times. Soccer isn't my game, but I'll watch the FIFA Cup from the quarters on because the skill on display is immense.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium, the debate rages between the Duke and the Kookaburra and there is a perception the seam on the Duke is more pronounce and it swings more. However we should compare apples with apples. There is the white ball and the red ball. It is no good comparing the white with the red. The white balls(both Duke and Kooka) are coated with a polyurethane and this gives it a harder " feel " The red and white balls both have the same core. So theoretically they should not be any harder or softer. English pitches are softer than Australian pitches and that is why the Duke holds its seam and shape longewr. Play the Duke in Australia and this may not be the case. I believe it is all in the mind and the equipment is only as good as the practioner.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium, I have a special interest in Leander Paes. He also went to my school,La Martiniere in Calcutta and his grandfather is a famous Bengali poet. Leander beat Sampras in two in an ATP tournament in 1998. The same year he won his only singles title. He has won the doubles at all the majors except the Australian,where he has been a finalist. However he has won the Mixed at the Aussie Open. One of those rare Indian athletes who actually does fitness work.
Plasmodium
Guest
VINAY - Different kinds of balls in different sports, or the changing of same, has been a contentious issue for some time. Currently, Major League baseballs are made in Costa Rica from cork and rubber, Tennessee Holstein cowhide, and gray New Zealand sheep’s wool yarn. They're churned out - hand-made- to the tune of 2.5 million a year. They're hand-sewn with 108 stitches. The not-so-oldtimers claim that today's baseball is livelier now because the team owners want to see more homers. The manufacturer, Rawlings, claims the balls are the same as they've always been. We used to call a cricket ball a six-stitcher although we never played with one. We used a compo ball - far cheaper and it would stand up to concrete pitches and never lose its shape although it would pit which was great for a spin bowler's grip. Has there been a similar controversy with the Duke or the Kooka? Has cricket made a livelier ball for the crowd who come for the big hitters?
Plasmodium
Guest
JOHN & VINAY - Roy Emerson learned to play on an anthill court. That's really the red stuff. What is it with Queenslanders and tennis? Laver, Emmo, Rafter. Who else beside SS? VINAY & KERSI - the following might be of particular interest to you. An interview by a good tennis writer over here in N. America with Daniel Nestor who, with Nenad Zimonjic, will be playing Leander Paes and Lucas Dlouhy for the FO doubles championship on Saturday. Nestor says of Leander, " No other doubles player in history had faster hands at the net. As for his partners, he had a stormy relationship with Mahesh Bhupathi because when Mahesh partnered somebody with similar career results he didn't play as well. Mahesh plays better when he partners guys less talented than he because he likes to take over." N&Z are 5-1 head to head with P&D. P&D won the FO title last year and also took the US. But they're a hot and cold combo - their match record going into the French was 3-4 on European clay whereas N&Z, on the same surface, are 11-2.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
John, you are right to surmise that the likes of Goolagong and Court grew up on "dirt" courts.There is a push in the last few years to have more clay courts in Australia. Australia is playing catch-up instead of leading the world. I have nothing but admiration for Stosur's march to the final. It is all her doing and TA should not think they can take any credit for it.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium, thanks for the information. I was also reading that the Roland Garros balls are supposed to be "faster" than the ones used on Grass. The principle being that slow courts need faster balls and vice versa. This is like using science to prove the dimples on a golf ball make it do extraordinary things. Or the Duke ball swings more than the Kooka in cricket. All these claims presuppose the ball is hit in the centre. What then? I believe Sam Stosur has too much artillery and "smarts" for the Italian Nun. I for one will not feel sorry for the loser. They both take away money,fame and admiration. This is sport and sorry is for the millions that struggle for drinking water but I know what you mean Plasmodium and I am sorry to sermonise.
John
Guest
If Sam wins she will be the first Australian woman to win the French Open since Margaret Court in 1973. Margaret Court and Evonne Cawley both did well in the French Open. I wonder if it had anything to do with the loam courts that most Australians learned tennis on back then?
Plasmodium
Guest
VINAY - The French Open uses Roland Garros balls which are made by Dunlop specially for the FO. Slazengers supply the balls for the Big W. They're lighter and have more bounce. Tend to fluff faster resulting in the server being choosier on the grass. Both brand names are, I believe, owned by Brit firm Sports Direct International, a major retail group. Sam has had two big successes at W, although both with a partner - womens doubles and the mixed - so she can play on grass ("I'm waiting for a cow to come on," as Ivan Lendl once famously said). Now that Sam has confidence in her first serve she should do well there. As for Saturday, Francesca is a charming woman, and a very smart player. I'm going to feel sorry for whoever loses.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium, Match Point could be apt. However you can clear something up for me. I think they are using Dunlop balls at Roland and these are supposed to be faster than the ones Used at W at Flushing Meadows..Is this correct. I feel a good sunny day with temperatures around 24c will favour Stosur. But in the end it will be Stosur executing the process and forgetting about the outcome. You don't get wealthy by thinking about being rich. You work hard unless you are doing something illegal.
Plasmodium
Guest
VINAY - you want me to come up with a movie reference vis a vis the final, something close to Asprins for Three? Well, if it's a back and forth match, how about Two for the Seesaw? Although there's a perfect Woody Allen movie, the 2005 thriller, Match Point.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Tomsss,nobody is saying she's won the French Open. She has put herself in a good position to win and " barring a major form reversal" she is odds on. There is no hubris here.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Kersi,Sheek, Sam Stosur is on a journey. She can only strive to be the best she can possibly be. Hunger,dedication and hitting lots of balls. "Yet if a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? If she never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run? " Germaine Greer
M1tch
Roar Guru
Awesome from Stosur, one of the best clay players around
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Thanks Cliff, administrators are like politicians. always around the winner's circle. It is said we prosper not because of them but in spite of them. It makes sense,for all sports, to have former players in key decision making capacities.
Tomsss
Guest
Bit premature to be saying she's won the title. Sounds a bit to me like the kiwi's at every rugby world cup! Don't get me wrong though, I'm a big fan. All the best Sam!
Brett McKay
Guest
indeed Kersi, I made the same comment to Vinay yesterday or Wednesday that it's been a boom time for women's international sport in Australia...
Cliff (Bishkek)
Guest
Vinay, great article with very pleasing description. Congratulations to Sam and I believe she can win it. She has shown trememndous courage, guts and determination in what she has overcome and achieved the last couple of years. And, she can only improve. I watched it last evening but what erked me was the sight of Geoff Pollard sitting in the stands smiling like a Cheshire Cat. Tennis Australia under his command and leadership has achieved nothing over the last (some 10 years) with Australia's Tennis credentials in the dirt. The worst administrator ever in TA history. This current TA board has doen nothing for Australian Tennis and the younger generation and it will not change its ways; even with every past player questioning their agenda and recommending changes.
lucyfanclub
Guest
Go the Stosur kiddie...