Stosur breezes into Hobart tennis semis
Top seed Sam Stosur has put together her most complete performance of the season to breeze into the semifinals of the Hobart International.
Hobart TAS, Australia, 9 January 2014 | AAP
Top seed Sam Stosur has put together her most complete performance of the season to breeze into the semifinals of the Hobart International.
Stosur put recent struggles behind her on Thursday to notch an impressive 6-3 6-2 quarter-final victory over Serbian world No.34 Bojana Jovanovski.
The Australian rediscovered her rhythm on serve in the best conditions of the tournament so far, and eliminated the unforced errors that had threatened her Australian Open preparations.
She finished it off with a superb serve down the T to set up a semi against seventh-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova, who beat American Alison Riske 6-4 7-5.
World No.17 Stosur had barely scraped into the quarters, needing third-set tiebreakers to down her early opponents after losing all three matches at the Hopman Cup.
But she won 72 per cent of points on her first serve against Jovanovski, who made the Open fourth round last year, to set up an emphatic victory in one hour and 12 minutes.
The 2011 US Open champion has been desperate to better her second-round exit at the Open last year, and her best effort in Melbourne of the fourth round in 2010.
The 29-year-old’s steadily improving game took a giant stride forward as the first set unfolded.
Finding herself down a break at 2-1 on the back of the unforced errors that had characterised her tournament, she hit back immediately with a break of her own to level at 2-2.
She saved three break points in the next game and broke in the eighth game to lead 5-3.
Serving for the set, she didn’t concede another point, finishing it emphatically with an ace that had the healthy Hobart crowd elated.
Jovanovski’s fourth double fault gifted Stosur a break in the fifth game of the second for a 3-2 lead.
The Australian broke again for 5-2 and served out the match.