By Chris Oddo | Wednesday June 1, 2016
Sam Stosur flies into the Roland Garros semis for the first time since 2012.
Photo Source: AP
Having booked a spot in her third career Roland Garros semifinal with a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Tsvetana Pironkova, 32-year-old Aussie Sam Stosur doesn’t really mind if she’s been written off. She doesn’t even care if she played well today, as long as she came away with a hard-fought W next to her name.
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On Wednesday she managed to do that despite being pushed quite a bit by world No. 102 Pironkova. She was down 4-2 in set one and had to save three break points to stay in touch before reeling off the final four games to take the opener.
In the second-set tiebreaker she saved two set point before clinching the win by taking the final four points. She was clutch. But did she play well?
“At this point in time I could care less how I played if I won,” she said after booking her berth alongside No. 4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals. “Look, it was really tricky today. She has all different sorts of paces. Sometimes she gives you nothing and then she can really hit it. It was really tough out there today, so to get through that in straight sets, I'm really happy.”
Stosur, the 2010 U.S. Open champion that is considered by many to be a perennial underachiever, says that’s the nature of the beast in professional tennis. “I think tennis in general is very reactive,” she said. “You can have a great year or two and then you have a slump and everyone writes you off. I think even people write off Roger and Rafa. If they will write them off they will write off everyone else. But I think it all really comes down to how you feel about what you're doing. If you feel like, you know, one, still healthy, doing everything you need to, training well, training hard, and feel like you can still compete with the best players in the world. I always still felt like that.”
Stosur has to feel good about what she’s doing in Paris, as she’s clinched her first semifinal at a major since four years ago in Paris. That year she fell in three sets to eventual runner-up Sara Errani. Can she go further in 2016?
“There are only a handful of us left now and we all want it really bad,” Stosur said. “It's not going to be easy from this point on. It's no easier than what it was a week and a half ago.”
Stosur will head into the semifinals with a strong desire to prolong her stay in Paris, and not just for her own personal reasons. She’ll also be playing for her coach David Taylor, who is stepping down after the French to spend more time with his family. When Stosur does lose, or if she wins the title, it will be the last moment of an incredibly productive coach-player pairing.
“Whether it's the next match or the one after, then it is what it is,” Stosur said. “It's nice to have a really good tournament to finish on.”