Stosur celebrates in Carlsbad, Rybarikova in Washington

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Wilson Blade 9

Samantha Stosur and Magdalena Rybarikova both lost their opening matches at the Bank of the West Classic last week and both went all the way to the title at their next tournament, the Southern California Open and the Citi Open respectively.

Wildcard Stosur celebrated a WTA title for the first time since becoming the 2011 US Open champion, by beating top-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-2 6-3, who was playing her first tournament since withdrawing from Wimbledon injured. Stosur hadn’t even planned to play Carlsbad, rather to train in Florida before heading to Toronto and Cincinnati, but since she lost so early in Stanford, her plans changed and now not only has she won the Carlsbad title, but she also beat Azarenka for the first time in their nine meetings. In addition, the fifth-seeded Stosur defeated Varvara Lepchenko in the first round, Sesil Karatantcheva in the second, second seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals and Virginie Razzano in the semis.

At the Citi Open in Washington DC, the seventh-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova was a point away from falling 5-0 down in the first set of her final against Andrea Petkovic, but revived by winning eight straight games and fought to a 6-4 7-6(2) victory for her second straight title at the tournament. The Slovak is now 10-0 at the Citi Open. This year her victims besides Andrea Petkovic included: Christina McHale, Jana Cepelova, top seed Angelique Kerber and third seed Ekaterina Makarova. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

3 COMMENTS

  1. Another thing happened at the Citi Open, Olga Puchkova got DQ’d for hitting a line judge with a ball. It was an accident, but rules are rules

  2. I’ll never work Sam Stosur out. I’ve been a fan since 2007 when she was still a doubles specialist. I didn’t think she still had a tournament like this left in her. Now it has me half hoping she can put up a show in the US Open. Anyway, it is great to see the banshee squeals of Azarenka at the wrong end of a match with her at last.

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