After two hours and 39 minutes of a tough battle, a new star is born. American seventeen-year-old Victoria Duval, ranked 298th, defeated eleventh seed and the winner of the 2011 US Open Samantha Stosur, 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the first round. Duval played with all she’s got and the gutsy young player, who was held hostage at the age of seven, prevailed in the end, despite trailing 7-5 4-2 at one point. The twenty-nine-year-old Stosur was calm, but even her experience couldn’t respond to Duval’s fearless spirit and poise under pressure.
Beautiful match till the end, the experience of a lifetime for the young Victoria. Her best and only performance so far was last year’s first round at the US Open. That was her only Grand Slam prior to this US Open. It will be interesting to see what’s in store for her in the future.
Duval next faces Daniela Hantuchova, the thirty-year-old Slovakian who was a quarterfinalist at the US Open in 2002, but since then only once reached the fourth round, in 2009. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
She played a pretty great match. Although Sam really, really made a whole lot of errors and didn’t play her best (which imo she hasn’t the last couple of months??) But thumbs up for the young lady! Hopefully she’s not to overwhelmed by her win and can charge her battery for the next experience!
I’m impressed with Victoria, especially the way she finally ended the match. But very disappointing for Sam. She’ll fall down the rankings after Open now, propably out of the top15? I was hoping her to do well here, she played so well in Carlsbad and now this??
Wow, well done to her. I think this generation of young players will finally help lift the American tennis.