WTA: Samantha Stosur uncertain about career end

The Australian Samantha Stosur, US Open Champion 2011, is slowly thinking about withdrawing from active tennis after years of disappointment.

Samantha Stosur has been a constant in world tennis for many years: she has been ranked 20th for ages, from 2011 to 2013 she was a top ten player, always good for the list of “extended circle of favourites at Grand Slams”, in 2010 she was a finalist in Roland Garros and in 2011 she won Flushing Meadows.

However, the last two seasons were sobering for the popular Sam. A hand injury put her out of action in the summer of 2017, and even though Stosur played a full season again this year, it went particularly badly in the first half of the year. As a result, the 34-year-old flew out of the top 100 for the first time in almost exactly ten years.

Stosur has fought her way to the semi-finals in Mallorca and the quarter-finals in Gstaad, currently she is ranked 74th. The 2019 season start in Brisbane and at the Australian Open is fixed – but Stosur only knows about how many years it will be like that. “I have a rough idea, but it’s so hard to say,” Stosur brooded to the Australian Associated Press. As long as she continues to play as she currently does, she wants to continue.

“I don’t want to set a date. If you want to keep going, even though you’d better step back, you look stupid. And if you stop earlier, it’s just as stupid,” Stosur continues.

The Australian summer: never really a successful time for Stosur, too great the pressure she often puts on herself – like many other colleagues. Often “Sammy” failed at the home games because of her nerves. She has celebrated nine tournament wins in the singles so far, none of them “Down Under”, and at the Australian Open “only” two round of sixteen (2006, 2010) are on the table as best performances. But things went better for two: She won the Mixed in Melbourne in 2005 and the doubles final in 2006. “It would be nice to stop with a high, with a good result in Australia,” dreams Stosur.

And she sees, typically Australian, the lemonade instead of the lemon. “All in all, this year may have been a little disappointing. On the other hand, it was good because I wasn’t hurt and didn’t miss anything.” And above all: “I feel that I am playing well at the moment. Of course you have to win matches, but from a feeling point of view everything is there. I’m looking forward to the coming season.”