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Samantha Stosur says missing the Commonwealth Games is a no-brainer as she eyes one of the rarest feats in women’s tennis.
Stosur’s progression to the second week of the US Open for the first time has the French Open runner-up poised to qualify for next month’s prestigious season-ending tour championships in Doha.
Australia’s world No.6 would have been top seed and a raging gold medal favourite in Delhi as the only player in the Commonwealth presently ranked inside the top 50.
But the opportunity to join Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, Jana Novotna and Lindsay Davenport as the only women ever to have won both the singles and doubles at the tour championships is too much for Stosur to resist.
The 26-year-old has already secured two doubles crowns with American Lisa Raymond in 2005 and 2006.
“To be in the position that you might qualify (for the singles), or have a good chance of qualifying, it’s definitely a goal so I’d absolutely love to be there,” Stosur told AAP ahead of her fourth-round Open clash with Elena Dementieva on Sunday (Monday AEST).
“Obviously you’ve got to play the right tournaments to get there. It’s a bit of a shame with the Commonwealth Games conflicting, but that’s the way it is.”
Only the top eight players will qualify for the $US4.55 million ($A5 million) tour championships and Stosur arrived in New York in fourth place behind world No.1 Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams in the points race to Doha.
The only player to have beaten Williams at a grand slam event in 2010, Stosur even has an outside shot of ending the year as world No.1 were she to win in Doha and the American – who hasn’t played since Wimbledon because of foot surgery – flops or misses the tournament.
Rankings and prestige aside, Stosur would be guaranteed a massive cheque if she qualified for the championships.
Players earn $US100,000 ($A109,900) just for fronting and another $US100,000 for each round-robin win.
The champion collects at least $US1.35 million ($A1.48 million) – and more if undefeated – while the runner-up will pocket up to $US780,000 ($A857,000) and losing semi-finalists can make $US400,000 ($A439,500) each.
And even if she wanted to play the Commonwealth Games, Stosur is committed to compulsory WTA events in Asia, both out of necessity to maintain her top-eight ranking and to avoid being fined by the governing body of women’s tennis.
“You always want to play for your country but, unfortunately when there’s a mandatory event on and it can mean so much, you’ve kind of got to go where the tour goes,” Stosur said.
Stosur admitted India’s volatility also concerned her.
“With some of the problems that have been there recently, I don’t really want to put myself in a bad position,” she said.
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