Second seed and last year’s titlist Samantha Stosur crashed out of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, falling to unseeded Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-1 in the third round.
After a 4-2 lead in the first set, Stosur lost 10 of the next 11 games and the 56th-ranked Vesnina scored her first Top 10 victory since defeating Francesca Schiavone in Cincinnati last year. Vesnina said that the doubles title at the Premier-level Indian Wells with Sania Mirza lifted her confidence.
The 2010 French Open finalist Stosur had decided to skip Australia’s upcoming Fed Cup tie against Ukraine to focus on the clay court warm-up for the Grand Slam. Well, her first WTA tournament on clay this season wasn’t confidence-boosting.
Vesnina’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be No.12 seed Julia Goerges, who beat fifth seed Shahar Peer 6-2 6-3. Other Charleston quarterfinal pairs include (seeding is in brackets): Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs. Yanina Wickmayer (6), Jelena Jankovic (3) vs. Christina McHale, who upset tenth seed Daniela Hantuchova, and Peng Shuai (11) vs. Sania Mirza. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Vesnina’s positive attitude has helped her in gaining more confidence in herself. I wish her good luck in her match with Georges.
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What’s the matter with Stosur? Lately, she’s hardly playing like a world #5– Sam should’ve stopped Sharapova at Miami, seems like every other top 10 has beaten Maria lately and Stosur is about 0-8 against her.
And now on the clay surface that Sam has accomplished her best singles result (runner-up at FO), she falls early to an unseeded #56 player plus Stosur will have a net loss of points due to her early exit.
Damned! It’s like her trainer said: There are two possibilities. First: She is going to make it better and do something before the clay-session. Second: She’s going to fall as deep as Dinara Safina and have to do it all again.
For me Stosur is one of the greatet players on the tour. Whenever I see her loosing I ask myself “Why? What’s the matter?”
All I can say is I pray for Stosur. She have to come back to her old form!