By Chris Oddo | Sunday, October 12, 2014

 

Sam Stosur captured her third Osaka title with a straight-sets win over Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas.

Photo Source: Japan Women's Tennis Open

The kids came to Osaka, but once again the been-there-done-that Aussie by the name of Sam Stosur came away with the title.

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Stosur knocked off 20-year-old Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, 7-6(7), 6-3, to notch her third title at the Japan Women’s Tennis Open, a day after downing 20-year-old Elina Svitolina in the semifinals.

"Quite a few young ones here," Stosur said, according to wtatennis.com. "Zarina's quite a good player. I'd never seen her play too much before, but I can see why she's one of the WTA Rising Stars, and I really had to play some good tennis to beat her today."

Stosur has never won any other tournament more than once in her career, but the Aussie seems to feel right at home in Osaka. Half of her six WTA titles have come in Osaka.

Stosur was broken in the opening game of the match but she did not let Diyas break her for the rest of the match. After squeezing by in a tiebreaker to take the opener, Stosur saved all three break points she faced in the second set and broke twice, including the final game, to clinch the victory in one hour and 40 minutes.

Diyas, playing in her first career final, had two set points in the first set tiebreaker but could not make them pay off as Stosur rallied to seize the momentum. The Aussie managed to win 16 of 22 points against Diyas’s second serve (including 8 of 9 in the first set), and broke three times on six opportunities during the match.