#SamanthaStosur's New Year celebrations were ruined with a loss in her landmark 1000th career match, as her struggles in her homeland Australia (at the #BrisbaneInternational) continued to bother her throughout her career. The Australian was defeated by an inspired qualifier in #MarieBouzkova, who played some lights-out tennis to prevail after two-hours and 12-minutes of play.
It was surprisingly a high-quality match as both players seemed to be performing well at various stages of the encounter. Bouzkova impressively blasted 42 winners to just 29 unforced errors while Stosur did not play too bad either, firing 29 winners to just 23 unforced errors. Although the Australian served 10 aces, she was unable to avoid the loss in her home country once more.
After a terrific first set by Stosur, it was Bouzkova who rattled off 12 of the next 16 games to triumph in this match which started in 2018 but ended in 2019. The clock struck midnight in the middle of the final set, leading to a series of cheers from the crowd who could have been said to be watching tennis for a year.
Stosur grabs the high-quality first set
It was Stosur who was the first player to lose her serve in the match after producing a succession of errors. Although she had the golden opportunity to break straight back, she was wasteful on her chances as Bouzkova put up an inspired display to consolidate the break for a commanding 3-1 lead.
However, from there it was one-way traffic for Stosur who steered towards a 4-3 lead having rattled off three consecutive games. The home favourite was utilizing her backhand slice really well, and fired an ace to fend off a crucial break point in the seventh game.
Serving to stay in the set, Bouzkova failed to deal with the pace of Stosur’s shots and the pressure weighed on her shoulders, committing several unforced errors to gift the first set to the Australian.
Bouzkova fights back for a decider
A marathon game started the second set as it ultimately proved crucial in deciding the outcome of the match. Stosur was serving but came up with several poor errors, including several groundstrokes which landed up in the net, undoing her own hard work of saving five break points as Bouzkova was sixth-time lucky to earn the lead.
The Czech qualifier easily consolidated the lead, and Stosur once again missed game point opportunities to get broken in the third game. It was a pity for the 2011 US Open champion as she went to earn consecutive love service games but failed to find a breakthrough on the return, with Bouzkova playing some quality tennis and firing winners at her own will.
Bouzkova seals the win
The killer strike was the break in the opening game for Bouzkova as Stosur failed to find her way back since then. The Czech was playing unbelievably well and performed way better than what her ranking suggests. Certainly, coming through the qualifying rounds aided Bouzkova in this match as this was Stosur’s first match of the new season and she can be said to be rusty coming into the encounter.
Bouzkova rattled off eight consecutive points as Stosur lost a 40-0 lead in the seventh game, allowing the Czech to pull off one of the biggest wins of her young career. Bouzkova will next face fellow countrywoman and fifth seed Karolina Pliskova in the biggest match of her career.
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