Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur was born in 1984 in Brisbane. Her older brother made sure her six-year-old sister played sports when the family moved to another city. In the same year, Samantha received the first in her life as a Christmas present. tennis racket... This was the beginning of her sports career and no one doubted that tennis for Samantha Stosur would become a king in life ..

When the girl was 13 years old, she already went to her first international tennis tournament. A year later, Samantha became a student of the sports tennis academy, and after receiving a general education, she entered the institute for sports tennis programs.

Samantha Stosur began her adult tennis career in 1998. A few years later, she first appeared at the Women's Tennis Association. In 2001, she proved herself to be a good tennis player, having won ten wins in ITF-level matches, four of them alone.

Further, one by one, they rushed international tournaments in tennis, in which Samantha Stosur has become a winner more than once. Samantha Stosur won matches in competitions 29 times, of which 5 were singles. The athlete also distinguished herself by participating in Grand Slam tournaments, where she also won the title of winner five times. In addition, Samantha Stosur, since 2003, has been a permanent member of the Australian national team at the Fed Cup.

Samantha Jane Stosur - famous tennis player from Australia. She is the most titled Australian tennis player. Tournament Winner Grand Slam US OPEN in 2011 alone. She is also a finalist at the 2010 Grand Slam tournament in France in singles. During her career, she won 34 titles. Most of them were in doubles.

Consider the biography of tennis player Samantha Stosur.

Childhood

Future star Australian tennis was born on March 30, 1984 in the city of Brisbane. The athlete has Polish roots, since her own grandfather was born in Poland. At the age of six, the girl and her family moved to Adelaide, as their home in Brisbane was destroyed by a severe flood. It was in Adelaide that she started playing tennis. Parents tried in every possible way to provide for their daughter, so they were constantly at work. In turn, the girl tried to give her all in training. Samantha has an older brother, who attracted the girl to constant tennis lessons.

First steps in tennis

Samantha Stosur played in her first professional tournament at the age of 14. For the third season of performances, the Australian tennis player was able to win ten titles at the ITF tournaments. And already at 16 she made her debut in qualifying for the Grand Slam tournament in her native Australia.

In 2002 he made his debut at the WTA tournaments. The very first competition took place in Gold Caste, where the Australian lost the first match devastatingly. It wasn't until the next season that Samantha won for the first time. It is noteworthy that the first victory came at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, where the girl reached the third round of the competition. After the end of the tournament, the athlete entered the TOP-200 rating.

Adult tennis career

After her successes at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, Samantha began to constantly improve the quality of her performances. So, the next season, the Australian reached the semifinals at a tournament in the same Gold Coast. Then she reached the quarterfinals at the tournament in Acapulco. And at Indian Wells, the Australian tennis player reached the fourth round of the competition. As a result, at the end of the season, the athlete got into the first hundred of the world rankings.

The very next season, at the Grand Slam tournament in the United States, Samantha was able to win the first title in doubles... The partner was Lisa Raymond.

And in 2006, thanks to the victory at the Grand Slam tournament in France and the final in Australia, the tennis player took the first line of the world ranking in doubles. In the same year, at the Grand Slam tournament in Australia, Samantha reached the fourth round.

Over the next several seasons, the Australian tennis player began to decline in play associated with Lyme disease. However, this did not prevent Samantha from being in the first hundred of the world ranking. Two years later, at Wimbledon, the Australian won the doubles tournament.

In 2009, alone, Samantha reaches the third round of Wimbledon. The Australian tennis player did not achieve great success alone, preferring pair tennis... The next two years can be called the peak of his career. First, at her own Grand Slam tournament in Australia, in 2010, the athlete reached the fourth round of the competition, and at the Grand Slam tournament in France - to the final.

This allowed the Australian tennis player to confidently gain a foothold in the top ten of the world rankings. And already in the next season, she first reached the final stage at Wimbledon in doubles. After, alone, Samantha won the first and last Grand Slam of her career.

At the Grand Slam tournament in the United States, the Australian tennis player, in the final, beat the current first racket of the world - American Serena Williams. By the end of the season, Samantha was able to take the fourth line of the world rankings - the highest position in singles... Also, the Australian tennis player made her singles debut in the Final Tournament. However, she failed to win that tournament. The Australian only reached the semifinals, where she lost to Czech Petra Kvitova in three sets.

After a successful 2011, the tennis player's career began to decline. Over the next seven years, Samantha was unable to show anything outstanding, coming out only to the third round at Wimbledon in 2013.

2018 is also not an asset for an Australian tennis player. For example, at a tournament in New Haven, the Australian met with Arina Sobolenko. Samantha Stosur lost that match. She gave up almost without a fight, winning five games in two sets.

Tournament performances

Over the course of her long career, the Australian tennis player has won 32 WTA titles, won six Grand Slam tournaments and won twice in the Final Tournament. Most of all victories were in doubles and mixed. Samantha won only nine titles in singles.

Rating

Samantha Stosur in 2006 was able to climb to the first line of the world ranking in doubles. As for the singles, in 2011 the Australian conquered the fourth place, thanks to the victory in the Grand Slam tournament in the United States. At the moment, the Australian tennis player is on the 72nd position in the world ranking.

Personal life

Samantha Stosur tries not to talk about her own personal life in an interview with reporters. Therefore, she remains a mystery to Samantha fans and admirers.

Hobbies, hobbies

Free time from sports, the girl tries to spend with her beloved dog, which she rarely sees due to constant departures. Samantha also loves shopping, watching movies and spending time with her loved ones and friends.

Samantha Jane Stosur(eng. Samantha Jane Stosur; born March 30, 1984 in Brisbane, Australia) - Australian professional tennis player; winner of one Grand Slam singles tournament (2011 US Open); finalist of one Grand Slam tournament in singles (French Open 2010); winner of 32 WTA tournaments (8 of them in singles); former number four in the world in singles; winner of five Grand Slam doubles tournaments (two of them in the women's and three in the mixed doubles); former first racket of the world in doubles.

general information

Grandfather Stosur is from Poland. Samantha's father's name is Tony, mother's name is Diana. She also has two brothers - Dominic and Daniel. At the age of six, Sam moved with her family from the Gold Coast to Adelaide after their home was destroyed by floods. Already there, in the capital of South Australia, she started playing tennis when her parents gave her a racket for Christmas. While her parents worked in a cafe, Sam played on local courts with her older brother Daniel, who later convinced her parents to take Samantha to tennis lessons.

At the age of 14, the Australian entered the Queensland Sports Academy (QAS), then in 2001 Sam joins the Australian Institute of Tennis Sports Programs.

Sports career

Samantha held her first adult ITF tournament in 1998, two years later she made her debut in the WTA - receiving a wild card, she entered the Australian Open qualifier. 2001 was the first year of great success for her - 10 ITF titles were won (4 - in singles). In 2002, she made her debut in the main draw - in the first round of the Gold Coast, she managed to take only 2 games from Anastasia Myskina. In 2003, Samantha finally managed to win the first match in the main draw of the WTA tournament - she reached the 3rd round at the Australian Open, beating the then No. 37 in the world Conchita Martinez along the way. This success allowed her to enter the Top 200 singles rankings.

In 2004, Samantha reached the semifinals of the WTA singles tournament for the first time - in the Gold Coast (along the way, beating the 17th racket of the world at that time, Meganne Shaughnessy). The March quarterfinals in Acapulco and the 4th round in Indian Wells bring the Australian woman to the Top 100 for the first time ahead of the tournament in Berlin. At Roland Garros, for the first time, she qualifies for the "base" Grand Slam tournament directly, without qualifying. These successes allow Stosur to get into the Australian Olympic team, but her participation in the tournament is limited to 2 matches - one each in singles and doubles tournaments. Several exits from qualification in the second or third round allow the Australian to finish the year in 65th place in the rankings. At the end of the year, for the first time, she reaches the final of the WTA doubles tournament - in Quebec, their duet with Els Cullens is inferior in the final to a pair of Carly Gallixon and Maria-Emilia Salerny.

Sam gets off to a great start again: she twice reaches the finals of the WTA tournaments before the Australian Open - in the Gold Coast she is stopped by Patti Schnyder, and in Sydney - by Alicia Molik (and that final became possible also because Lindsay Davenport, then No. 1, and Elena Dementieva, sixth in the rankings, did not make it to their matches in the quarters and semifinals). This allows Sam to become No. 45 in the world. In the future, performances in singles began to fade into the background, being overshadowed by the results that went up in a pair. The year began in a duet with Brianne Stewart - at first they managed to win Sydney (and two more refusals of rivals on the way to the title - in the semifinals and the final), in April they took the title in Amelia Island (along the way they beat strong pairs Raymond / Stubbs, Asagoe / Srebotnik and Peshke / Schnyder). The collaboration with Stewart ended in semi-finals in Birmingham, Eastbourne and Wimbledon. There, at Wimbledon, a significant event took place - after losing in the first round, the pair Lisa Raymond / Renne Stubbs broke up.

It was Lisa who became Sam's next partner - after tournaments held in Stanford, San Diego and Los Angeles without any success, their duo issued a fourteen-game winning streak by winning 3 tournaments (including the US Open). Until the end of the year, they managed to score another title in Moscow, a semi-final in Zurich and a final in Philadelphia. This whole series of successes allowed Lisa and Sam to qualify for the final tournament in Los Angeles, where they had no equal - the Spanish pair Martinez / Ruano Pascual was defeated in the semifinals, and in the final (the third time in four meetings at this stage that year) they were beaten duet Black / Stubbs. Samantha finished the year with the second racket of the world in doubles rankings. She also managed to spend a good season in mixed doubles - with four different partners, she managed to reach the quarterfinals and higher 4 times, and her debut tournament in Australia was won with Kevin Ullett.

Samantha Stosur is one of those tennis players who are usually called "hard workers". She literally gnawed her place in the top ten, from year to year. Her current neighbors in the world tennis elite burst into her at a fairly young age, and Samantha became one of the strongest when they did not really believe in her even in her native Australia.

Why did the confession come so late? Perhaps one of the reasons was that Samantha also took up tennis later than others. current stars... She learned about tennis only at the age of six, when she first appeared on the court in Adelaide at the suggestion of her older brother Daniel. It was the brother who convinced the parents that Samantha had talent. As a result, she was sent to study tennis.

But here, too, Stosur did not manage to break through quickly. Only at the age of nineteen she won the first match in the WTA tournament for the first time. And in this 2003 year, the Australian finally entered the second hundred of the best tennis players of the tour. If you remember how I started in women's tennis Maria Sharapova at the same age, it turns out - a huge distance.

Everything in her career went on a little boring, step by step. Year 2004 - hitting the first hundred. But Samantha is already 20 years old, and progress is too subtle. Opponents don't wait and at her age already shine on the courts. But the next season is going up again - Stosur is already among the strongest 50.

But here Samantha is faced with some temptation: she is doing brilliantly in performances in the women's doubles category. She played in them with different partners, but it regularly reached the semi-finals and finals. major tournaments... And when Lisa Raymond, one of the strongest doubles players in the world, stood next to her on the court, the results skyrocketed. Stosur and Raymond finish the year brilliantly - a victory at the US Open and the second place of this pair in the world rankings.

However, these paired victories did not distract Samantha from her career ambitions in singles. She ends the 2005 season in the top thirty, but still every step forward in the ranking is given with a creak, and the years go by. Then there was some recession, caused both by illness and the prospect of continuing climbing in doubles. But these landmarks brought Stosur out of the ranks of the strongest - beyond the first hundred. It was necessary to decide something, and she decided. She returned to the single WTA tour and again began to advance among the strongest. A tried-and-true method was chosen for this: solid and reliable play in tournaments of various ranks, but, alas, losing to rivals in decisive matches. Suffice it to say that today Samata has only two victories in WTA tournaments, the first in 2009! Some young stars have more on their personal accounts. True, Stosur had achievements that stars have not yet dreamed of: reaching the semifinals of Roland Garros in the same 2009, where she lost to our Svetlana Kuznetsova. And a few more finals and semi-finals in the same year, which allowed the Australian to breathe in the back of the top ten - 13th position in the ranking.

In the 2010 season, Samantha decided to finally focus on the singles: it was already a stone's throw to the cherished “ten”. Still, 26 years old is one of last chance become truly one of the best in the world. And Stosur's calculations were justified. Although on account of Samantha in the season again only one won tournament - in Charlton. But she played quite often in the finals, semi-finals and quarterfinals of fairly significant tournaments and broke through to the coveted top ten. This season, for the Australian in general, there were many significant things for her: victories over Justine Henin, Serena Williams and the first ever Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. Here, it would seem, is a chance - in decisive meeting Samantha was opposed by a hitherto very modest Italian Francesca Schiavone. But it was to her that Stosur gave the title of champion.

Nevertheless, these stable results allowed Samantha to become one of the eight strongest and participate in final tournament of the year of the WTA in Doha. There Stosur did not get lost: she was able to deal a significant blow to the reputation of the newly-made first racket of the world, Caroline Wozniacki, defeating her in two sets and without options. The Australian reached the semifinals, where she lost future champion- Kim Clijsters. And this is for now best season in the biography of Samantha Stosur - the sixth place in the world table of ranks.

If we abandon pure statistics, then Stosur is to some extent a unique phenomenon in women's tennis. Only two victories in tournaments (for comparison, our Anna Chakvetadze is the 56th racket in the world - there are eight such victories). She is not shy in matches with the strongest - she won almost everyone, but often loses to God knows to whom. There is not enough psychological stamina for the entire tournament, and regularly.

Very little is known about Samantha's life off court. The press does not write about her novels, and she herself is silent about her personal life. She has a beloved dog, but Stosur rarely sees her, since he travels to tournaments. Loves shopping and socializing with friends. Appreciates tennis for giving her the opportunity to see the world in its most diverse manifestations. The only inconvenience for her is the need to pack and unpack her own things when moving. She categorically does not like this procedure, but she has to do this, alas, every week.

Alexey Morgun