After soaring to victory over Elena Dementieva 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, Samantha Stosur has reached a higher position than most would have slated. On the eve of her quarterfinals match against no. 2 seed Kim Clijsters, there is no better time to look back on Stosurs past achievements and see how she’s made it as far as she has.
Born and raised in Australian, Stosur began her tennis career at the age of eight. Her abilities were quickly realized by her family and she began coaching soon after taking up the sport. Receiving her first “big break” at the 2006 Australian open where she reached the fourth round and took her up in the rankings to No.27 in the year 2007.

            Last year is the true pin point as to when Stosur hit her stride with her game, starting the 2009 season off with a third-round appearance at the Australian Open and an appearance at the semifinals of the French Open. Due to her powerful serve, that previous competitors have had a rough time returning, causing analyst to view her as a serious competitor for Clijsters. However, the inconsistency with her ability to move well around the court could be a large detriment to her game.

Taking the court today against France’s Florence Alix-Gravellier is a young woman that has been widely spoken about since the US Open’s start. Though she faces challenges unimaginable by most top players, Ester Verger has taken them head on and risen to become number 1 in the rankings for the International Tennis Federation.

            Widely known in her home country of the Netherlands, Verger is the most successful Dutch athlete in the countries history. Though she was born with the ability to walk, Verger became a paraplegic at the age of eight after a, successful, surgery to remove hemorrhaging from her spinal cord. First though she took up tennis early on, Verger joined the national wheelchair basketball team and won the European championship in 1997. Playing her first tennis tournament in 1996, she won her first US Open championship in 1998. Since that time, she has become a five-time Paralympics tennis champion and an eleven-time consecutive world-champion.

             Remaining unbeaten in singles matches since January 2003, she hasn’t lost a match in 6 and half years. Yet despite her world record and obvious talent, if Verger is capable of taking home her Fourth US Open title she’ll take home only $9600, this is in comparison to the singles prize at $1.6 million dollars. Also, most in America haven’t even heard of Vergeer. Until Arthur Ashe Kid’s day, where she competed on behalf of her charity the…., we’d never even seen her play.

            Typically not thought of as an ESPN approved sport, wheelchair tennis still holds close to regular tennis with only a few small differences. First, the ball is allowed to bounce twice before it is returned and only the first bounce must land in the prescribed area of the court. If the first bounce is ruled in and the second bounce is out, the ball is still in play unless it bounces a third time.

            Though Ester Verger may never be on your Wheaties box, she still remains one of the most understated athletes in tennis, possibly any sport. And if losing only 25 times out of 589 while being the No.1 ranked athlete in your sport for more than eight years isn’t the definition of a great player, then what is?