Stosur's 2016 ends with a whimper

Samantha Stosur’s season is over following another straight-sets loss at the Elite Trophy event in China.

Stosur’s hopes of scraping into the semi-finals of the 12-player round-robin tournament evaporated on Thursday night in a 6-4 6-3 loss to Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia.

That followed a 6-4 6-2 defeat to top seed Johanna Konta on Wednesday night and left Australia’s world No.20 without a win since late August at the US Open.

Stosur started on fire, producing a series of big forehand winners and athletic volleys to storm to a 4-1 lead in the first set.

But Garcia responded to a courtside pep talk from her father and coach to reel off five straight games to snatch the opening set.

Stosur again blew an early service break in the second to allow Garcia to take the match and book a winner-takes-all clash with Konta for a semi-final spot from the Azalea group.

Earlier, local wildcard and Australian Open semi-finalist Zhang Shuai clinched the semi-final position from the Camellia group with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win over Hungary’s Timea Babos.