Wimbledon 2016: Sam Stosur power up assault
Samantha Stosur has launched her 14th Wimbledon campaign with a win over little-known Pole Magda Linette.
Samantha Stosur has launched her 14th Wimbledon campaign with a straight-sets victory over little-known Pole Magda Linette.
Australia’s top-ranked player safely progressed to the second round with a relatively comfortable 7-5 6-3 win at the All England Club last night.
Stosur’s reward is a showdown tomorrow night with former finalist Sabine Lisicki, who looked ominous in dispatching rising American Shelby Rogers 6-1 6-3 in less than an hour.
Seeded 14th after her run to this month’s French Open semi-finals, Stosur offset four aces with six double-faults but dropped serve just once in the 77-minute workout.
The former US Open champion was playing her first grand slam match under new coach Andrew Roberts, the Tasmanian helping Stosur during the grasscourt season following her split from long-time mentor David Taylor.
Roberts would have been impressed with Stosur’s confident start as she held her opening two service games to love before breaking Linette to charge ahead 3-1. But as the errors began to creep in, Stosur dropped serve and appeared to be heading to a tiebreaker until breaking the world No 92 for a second time to nab the opening set after 44 minutes. Stosur cruised through the second set without facing a break point and clinched victory with an ace.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic believes Nick Kyrgios is a genuine contender at Wimbledon this year and that the men’s draw is wide open.
Djokovic is 44-3 in singles matches this year and has won both the Australian Open and French Open as he hunts the calendar year grand slam, a feat not achieved by a male since Australia’s Rod Laver in 1969, for the second time.
And while many are confident Djokovic has an easy path through to a likely quarter-final with Canadian star Milos Raonic, the world No 1 is not so sure.
“You always have the top players, the ones that were most dominant on the grand slams in the previous years that are always in contention for winning the trophy — Andy Murray, Roger (Federer) — first of all, because of their rankings, their history of playing, playing well, and winning this tournament, especially Roger for so many times,” Djokovic said.
“Then you have Raonic, who has been playing very well. He has a big serve, which is an obvious advantage on this surface that is quickest we have in sports.
“Kyrgios is definitely one of the players that can go far. I think it’s pretty much an open field.
But I think the beauty of all the grand slams and of this sport is that you always start from scratch and you always start from the same starting position as everybody else, fighting for the trophy equally as everybody else.”
Djokovic got his campaign under way against Britain’s James Ward on Centre Court last night.
Kyrgios enters his third Wimbledon as Australia’s top title hope after announcing his arrival on the world stage in 2014 with an earth-moving victory over Rafael Nadal en route to the quarter-finals.
He backed up to make the fourth round last year, but the 15th seed must wait until tonight to launch his title quest against veteran Czech Radek Stepanek.
Bernard Tomic, seeded 19th this year, John Millman, Jordan Thompson, qualifiers Luke Saville and Matt Barton and women’s hope Daria Gavrilova also play their openers tonight.
Gavrilova planned to pore over tapes of Wang Qiang in a bid to gain some insight into her first-round Wimbledon opponent.
Australia’s summer sensation admits she knows little about the world No 73, apart from the fact she’s coached by Aussie Peter McNamara
Agencies