Biography of Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur. Biography of Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur

Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur was born in 1984 in Brisbane. Her older brother made sure that the six-year-old sister played sports when the family moved to another city. In the same year, Samantha received as a Christmas present the first in her life tennis racket. This was the beginning of her sports career and no one doubted that tennis for Samantha Stosur would become the goal in life ..

When the girl was 13 years old, she already went to her first international tennis tournament. A year later, Samantha became a student at the sports tennis academy, and after receiving a general education, she entered the institute for sports tennis programs.

Samantha Stosur began her adult tennis career in 1998. A few years later, she first appeared on the Women's Tennis Association. In 2001, she proved to be a good tennis player, winning ten ITF-level matches, four of them alone.

Further, one by one, rushed international tournaments in tennis, in which Samantha Stosur became the winner more than once. Samantha Stosur has won 29 competitive matches, 5 of which have been singles. The athlete also distinguished herself by participating in the Grand Slam tournaments, where she also won the title of winner five times. In addition, Samantha Stosur, since 2003, is a regular member of the Australian team in the Fed Cup.

Samantha Jane Stosur is a famous tennis player from Australia. She is the most titled Australian tennis player. 2011 US OPEN Grand Slam single winner. She is also a finalist at the Grand Slam tournament in France in 2010 in singles. She has won 34 titles in her career. Most of them were in doubles.

Consider the biography of tennis player Samantha Stosur.

Childhood

Future star Australian tennis was born on March 30, 1984 in Brisbane. The athlete has Polish roots, since her grandfather was born in Poland. At the age of six, the girl and her family moved to Adelaide, as her home in Brisbane was destroyed by severe flooding. It was in Adelaide that she began playing tennis. Parents tried in every possible way to provide for their daughter, so they were constantly at work. In turn, the girl tried to give all the best in training. Samantha has an older brother, who attracted the girl to constant tennis lessons.

First steps in tennis

Samantha Stosur played in her first professional tournament at the age of 14. For the third season of performances, the Australian tennis player was able to win ten titles in ITF tournaments. And already at 16 she made her debut in the qualification of the Grand Slam tournament in her native Australia.

In 2002, he made his debut at the WTA tournaments. The very first competitions were held in the Gold Cast, where the Australian devastatingly lost the first match. It wasn't until the next season that Samantha won for the first time. It is noteworthy that the first victory came at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, where the girl reached the third round of the competition. After the end of the tournament, the athlete entered the TOP-200 rating.

Senior tennis career

After success at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, Samantha began to constantly improve the quality of her performances. So, the following season, the Australian reached the semi-finals at the tournament in the same Gold Coast. After she reached the quarterfinal stage at the tournament in Acapulco. And at Indian Wells, the Australian tennis player reached the fourth round of the competition. As a result, at the end of the season, the athlete got into the first hundred of the world ranking.

The very next season, at the Grand Slam tournament in the United States, Samantha was able to win her first doubles title. The partner was Lisa Raymond.

And in 2006, thanks to the victory at the Grand Slam tournament in France and the final in Australia, the tennis player took the first line of the world ranking in doubles. In the same year, at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, Samantha reached the fourth round.

In the next few seasons, the Australian tennis player began to decline in the game associated with Lyme disease. However, this did not prevent Samantha from being in the top hundred of the world ranking. Two years later, at Wimbledon, the Australian wins the tournament in doubles.

In 2009, alone, Samantha reached the third round of Wimbledon. The Australian tennis player did not achieve great success in singles, preferring double tennis. The next two years can be called the peak of a career. First, at the native Grand Slam tournament in Australia, in 2010, the athlete reached the fourth round of the competition, and at the Grand Slam tournament in France - to the final.

This allowed the Australian tennis player to confidently gain a foothold in the top ten of the world rankings. And the very next season, she first reached the final stage at Wimbledon in doubles. Then, alone, Samantha won the first and last Grand Slam of her career.

At the Grand Slam tournament in the United States, the Australian tennis player defeated the current first racket of the world, American Serena Williams, in the final. By the end of the season, Samantha was able to take the fourth line of the world ranking - the highest position in singles. Also, the Australian tennis player made her debut at the Final Tournament in singles. However, she failed to win that tournament. The Australian reached only the semi-finals, where she lost to Czech Petra Kvitova in three sets.

After a successful 2011, the tennis player's career began to decline. Over the next seven years, Samantha was not able to show anything outstanding, leaving only until the third round at Wimbledon in 2013.

2018 also cannot be credited to the Australian tennis player. For example, at a tournament in New Haven, the Australian met with Arina Sobolenko. Samantha Stosur lost that match. Surrendered almost without a fight, winning five games in two sets.

Performances in tournaments

During her long career, the Australian tennis player has won 32 WTA titles, won six Grand Slam tournaments and twice won the Final Tournament. Most of all victories came in doubles and mixed doubles. Only nine titles Samantha won in singles.

Rating

Samantha Stosur in 2006 was able to rise to the first line of the world ranking in doubles. As for singles, in 2011 the Australian conquered fourth place, thanks to the victory at the Grand Slam tournament in the USA. At the moment, the Australian tennis player is in 72 positions in the world rankings.

Personal life

Samantha Stosur tries not to talk about her own personal life in interviews with reporters. Therefore, she Samantha remains a mystery to her fans and admirers.

Hobbies, hobbies

The girl tries to spend her free time from sports with her beloved dog, which she rarely sees due to constant departures. Samantha also loves shopping, watching feature films and spending time with her loved ones and friends.

Samantha Stosur is one of those tennis players who are called "hard workers". She literally gnawed her place in the top ten, from year to year. Her current neighbors in the elite of world tennis broke into her at a fairly young age, and Samantha became one of the strongest when they did not really believe in her even in her native Australia.

Why did the recognition come so late? Perhaps one of the reasons was that Samantha took up tennis later than others. current stars. She also learned about tennis only at the age of six, when she first appeared on the court in Adelaide at the suggestion of her older brother Daniel. It was the brother who convinced his parents that Samantha had talent. As a result, she was sent to study tennis.

But here, too, Stosur failed to make a quick breakthrough. Only at the age of nineteen she won the first match in the WTA tournament for the first time. And in this year, 2003, the Australian finally entered the second hundred of the best tennis players of the tour. If you remember how you started in women's tennis Maria Sharapova at the same age, it turns out - a huge distance.

Everything in her career went on a little boring, step by step. Year 2004 - hit in the first hundred. But Samantha is already 20 years old, and progress is too subtle. Rivals do not wait, and at her age they already shine on the courts. But the next season is going up again - Stosur is already among the strongest 50.

But here Samantha is faced with some temptation: she is doing brilliantly in performances in doubles. women's category. She played them with different partners, but it regularly came to the semi-finals and finals of major tournaments. And when Lisa Raymond, one of the strongest doubles players in the world, stood next to her on the court, the results went up sharply. Stosur and Raymond finish the year brilliantly - a victory at the US Open and the second place of this pair in the world ranking.

However, these doubles victories did not distract Samantha from career ambitions in singles. She finishes the 2005 season in the top thirty, but as before, every step forward in the ranking is given with a creak, and the years are running. Then there was a decline, caused by both illness and the prospect of continuing to climb in doubles. But these landmarks of hers brought Stosur out of the strongest - beyond the first hundred. It was necessary to decide something, and she decided. She returned to the WTA singles tour and again began to move up among the strongest. A tried-and-tested method was chosen for this: solid and reliable play in tournaments of various ranks, but, alas, losing to rivals in decisive matches. Suffice it to say that today Samata has only two victories in WTA tournaments, the first in 2009! Some young stars have more on their personal account. True, Stosur had achievements that the stars still cannot dream of: reaching the semi-finals of Roland Garros in the same 2009, where she lost to our Svetlana Kuznetsova. And several more finals and semi-finals in the same year, which allowed the Australian to breathe in the back of the top ten - 13th position in the ranking.

In the 2010 season, Samantha decided to finally focus on singles: it was already a stone's throw away from the coveted "top ten". Still, 26 years old is one of last chance become truly one of the best in the world. And Stosur's calculations came true. Although on account of Samantha in the season, again, only one won tournament - in Charlton. But she often played in the finals, semi-finals and quarter-finals of quite significant tournaments and broke through into the coveted top ten. This season, for the Australian, in general, there was a lot of significant for her: victories over Justine Henin, Serena Williams and the first final in her life at the Grand Slam tournament - at Roland Garros. Here, it would seem, is a chance - in the decisive meeting, Samantha was opposed by the hitherto very modest Italian Francesca Schiavone. But it was to her that Stosur gave the title of champion.

Nevertheless, these stable results allowed Samantha to enter the top eight and participate in the final WTA tournament of the year in Doha. There, Stosur did not get lost: she was able to deal a significant blow to the reputation of the newly-made first racket of the world, Caroline Wozniacki, defeating her in two sets and without options. The Australian reached the semi-finals, where she lost to future champion Kim Clijsters. And that's for now best season in the biography of Samantha Stosur - sixth place in the world ranking table.

Pure statistics aside, Stosur is somewhat unique in women's tennis. Only two victories in tournaments (for comparison, our Anna Chakvetadze, the 56th racket of the world, has eight such victories). She is not shy in matches with the strongest - she won almost everyone, but often loses to God knows who. There is not enough psychological stamina for the entire tournament, and regularly.

Very little is known about Samantha's off-court life. The press does not write about her novels, and she herself keeps quiet about her personal life. She has a beloved dog, but Stosur rarely sees her, as she travels to tournaments. She loves shopping and hanging out with friends. Appreciates tennis for the fact that he gave her the opportunity to see the world in its most diverse manifestations. The only inconvenience for her is the need to pack and unpack her own things when moving. She categorically does not like this procedure, but, alas, she has to do this every week.

Alexey Morgun

Samantha Jane Stosur(Eng. Samantha Jane Stosur; born March 30, 1984 in Brisbane, Australia) is an Australian professional tennis player; winner of one Grand Slam tournament in singles ( Open Championship USA-2011); finalist of one Grand Slam tournament in singles (French Open 2010); winner of 32 WTA tournaments (8 of them in singles); former fourth racket of the world in singles; winner of five Grand Slam tournaments in doubles (two of them in women's and three in mixed) doubles); former world No. 1 in doubles.

general information

Ded Stosur is from Poland. Samantha's father's name is Tony, and her mother's name is Diana. She also has two brothers - Dominic and Daniel. At the age of six, Sam and her family moved from the Gold Coast to Adelaide after their home was destroyed by a flood. Already there, in the capital of South Australia, she began to play tennis when her parents gave her a racket for Christmas. While her parents worked at the cafe, Sam played local courts with her older brother Daniel, who later convinced her parents to take Samantha to tennis lessons.

At the age of 14, an Australian enters Queensland sports academy(QAS), then in 2001 Sam joins the Australian Institute of Sports Tennis Programmes.

Sports career

Samantha held her first adult ITF tournament in 1998, two years later she made her debut in the WTA - having received a wild card, she was noted in the qualification Australian Open. 2001 was her first year of great success - 10 ITF titles were won (4 in singles). In 2002, she made her debut in the main draw - in the first round of the Gold Coast, she managed to take only 2 games from Anastasia Myskina. In 2003, Samantha finally managed to win the first match in the main draw of the WTA tournament - she reaches the 3rd round at the Australian Open, beating the then world No. 37 Conchita Martinez along the way. This success allowed her to enter the Top 200 singles rankings.

In 2004, Samantha for the first time reached the semi-finals of a single WTA tournament - in the Gold Coast (along the way, beating the 17th racket of the world at that time, Megan Shaughnessy). The March quarter-finals in Acapulco and the 4th round in Indian Wells allow the Australian on the eve of the tournament in Berlin to get into the Top-100 for the first time. On the Roland Garros for the first time, she qualifies for the "foundation" of a Grand Slam tournament directly, without selection. These successes allow Stosur to get into the Australian Olympic team, but her participation in the tournament is limited to 2 matches - one each in singles and doubles tournaments. Several exits from qualifying to the second or third round allow the Australian to finish the year in 65th place in the rankings. At the end of the year, she reaches the final of the WTA doubles tournament for the first time - in Quebec, their duet with Els Kallens is inferior in the final to the pair of Carly Gallickson and Marie-Emilia Salerni.

Sam again gets off to a great start: she twice reaches the finals of the WTA tournaments before the Australian Open - in the Gold Coast she is stopped by Patty Schnyder, and in Sydney by Alicia Molik (and that final became possible, among other things, because Lindsay Davenport, then No. 1, and Elena Dementieva, sixth in the ranking, did not qualify for their matches in the quarter- and semi-finals). This allows Sam to become No. 45 in the world. In the future, performances in singles began to fade into the background, being overshadowed by the results that went up in a pair. The year began in a duet with Brianne Stewart - at first they managed to win Sydney (and two more failures of their rivals on the way to the title - in the semi-final and final), in April the title was taken in Amelia Island (strong pairs Raymond / Stubbs, Asagoe / Srebotnik and Peschke/Schnider). Cooperation with Stewart ended with semi-finals in Birmingham, Eastbourne and Wimbledon. A significant event took place there at Wimbledon - after losing in the first round, the couple Lisa Raymond / Renne Stubbs broke up.

It was Lisa who became Sam's next partner - after the tournaments held in Stanford, San Diego and Los Angeles without any success, their duo issued a fourteen-match winning streak, winning 3 tournaments (including the US Open). Until the end of the year, they managed to celebrate another title in Moscow, a semi-final in Zurich and a final in Philadelphia. This whole series of successes allowed Lisa and Sam to qualify for the final tournament in Los Angeles, where they had no equal - the Spanish pair Martinez / Ruano Pascual was defeated in the semifinals, and beaten in the final (the third time in four meetings at this stage that year) duo Black/Stubbs. Samantha finished the year with the second racket of the world in the doubles ranking. She also managed to good season in the mixed doubles - with four different partners, they managed to reach the quarterfinals and above 4 times, and the debut tournament in Australia was won with Kevin Ullyett.