[bertisonline]

Originally Posted by Siderophyre

A snippet about Sam's practice in Cincinnati from Tennis.com.


Sam Stosur (9:52 – 10:05, *Court 13)

“I’m not being negative,” said Sam Stosur, putting more emotion into it then you’re used to seeing from her on a tennis court.

The words came after a break during which Stosur and her coach, David Taylor, had a long, animated conversation.

Practice resumed and with it normalcy, as Stosur turned her attention back to groundstrokes. The trademark spin was impressive as ever. But after 25 minutes of Serena, Stosur’s groundstrokes seemed to lack something. Depth, power and — it wasn’t hard to feel, especially from so close by — a certain oomph.


Full article here

As I understand it, her words came right during the practice, on court.
I guess that's quite unusual and that's just underlines some frustration, not to say even some tension between both of them.
A couple of victories are needed now to boot start the hard court season.
Very interesting article, BTW.
B.

[stromatolite]

Cool interview with Sam here:

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.co...WRT-Sports%7Cp

[Sinclair]

Originally Posted by stromatolite

Cool interview with Sam here:

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.co...WRT-Sports%7Cp

Thanks for posting this, Stro. I like this interview a lot.

First, I think Sam was very gracious about last year's USO. I mean, she makes a great point about what it took to get to the final match being shadowed in the media by her final against you-know-who. Then, she goes on to basically flatter the hell out of you-know-who by saying she's the best player in the WTA right now. Ok, Sam...you are really so absolutely classy for that. On the same note, however, she was able to cleverly let the interviewer know that her silence on you-know-who's temper tantrum last year was mostly due to the fact that it should not have received nearly as much attention as the winner of the match.

at the interviewer bringing up (yet again) the "Sam plays like a man" crap. But to Sam for turning into a positive! I liked her comments about on court coaching as well. Makes a lot of sense.

I kind of like how she mentioned Shvedova as someone to watch in the future. I've been keeping an eye on Yaroslava Shvedova recently, and I'm hoping she has success in singles.

All around, I think it was a great interview. If I never heard of Sam Stosur and was reading this interview in the newspaper, I'd be an instant fan.

[bertisonline]

Originally Posted by stromatolite

Cool interview with Sam here:

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.co...WRT-Sports%7Cp

Very nice! It's even surprising how some interviews can be that interesting compared to many other ones.
You can have a look to that US Open 12 one if you want to compare...

Originally Posted by Sinclair

Thanks for posting this, Stro. I like this interview a lot.

First, I think Sam was very gracious about last year's USO. I mean, she makes a great point about what it took to get to the final match being shadowed in the media by her final against you-know-who. Then, she goes on to basically flatter the hell out of you-know-who by saying she's the best player in the WTA right now. Ok, Sam...you are really so absolutely classy for that. On the same note, however, she was able to cleverly let the interviewer know that her silence on you-know-who's temper tantrum last year was mostly due to the fact that it should not have received nearly as much attention as the winner of the match.

at the interviewer bringing up (yet again) the "Sam plays like a man" crap. But to Sam for turning into a positive! I liked her comments about on court coaching as well. Makes a lot of sense.

I kind of like how she mentioned Shvedova as someone to watch in the future. I've been keeping an eye on Yaroslava Shvedova recently, and I'm hoping she has success in singles.

All around, I think it was a great interview. If I never heard of Sam Stosur and was reading this interview in the newspaper, I'd be an instant fan.

Maybe we are a little bit too fan infected to read it correctly.


One Question+Answer really original and which I really like
:Q: If a new tennis fan asked you what things to watch for at a professional tournament, what would you say?
A: Going out and watching practice can be quite interesting. You see some pretty funky things out there occasionally, and you see some people really working hard.*

B.

[SilverPersian]

Originally Posted by stromatolite

Cool interview with Sam here:

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.co...WRT-Sports%7Cp

Great interview. Definitely agree with what Sinclair wrote as well; as Sammy fans waking up at 3am every night I think we all remember those entire two weeks as amazing, but non-fans only remember the final. It's sad because she played such high quality tennis throughout and had some ridiculous epics along the way as well.

@Bertrand: The first question in that interview "I think last year was kind of Samantha who for a lot of tennis fans. Do you think this year it shows that 2011 was not a fluke?"


Yeah, fuck you too Mr/Mrs Interviewer

[stromatolite]

Originally Posted by bertisonline

One Question+Answer really original and which I really like
:Q: If a new tennis fan asked you what things to watch for at a professional tournament, what would you say?
A: Going out and watching practice can be quite interesting. You see some pretty funky things out there occasionally, and you see some people really working hard.*

B.

I thought you'd like that one, I thought of you immediately when I read it!

Originally Posted by SilverPersian

Great interview. Definitely agree with what Sinclair wrote as well; as Sammy fans waking up at 3am every night I think we all remember those entire two weeks as amazing, but non-fans only remember the final. It's sad because she played such high quality tennis throughout and had some ridiculous epics along the way as well.

@Bertrand: The first question in that interview "I think last year was kind of Samantha who for a lot of tennis fans. Do you think this year it shows that 2011 was not a fluke?"


Yeah, fuck you too Mr/Mrs Interviewer

+1

[Ivi_3]

stromatolite, thanks for the link for the great interview. It just shows what a sensible person Sam is. I liked a lot how she described how she sees the last year US open.

[SilverPersian]

There are some nice stats about how well Sam has been serving: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...904-25bad.html

During her relentless march to the last eight, Stosur has led her rivals - including the great Serena Williams - in almost every serving department.

Of most importance, she has won 82 per cent of points after landing her first serve - superior to Williams' 78 per cent - and she has coughed up the fewest double-faults (11) and unleashed the third-most aces (26).

Stosur has also only been broken three times in eight sets.

[annetcl]

Originally Posted by SilverPersian

There are some nice stats about how well Sam has been serving: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...904-25bad.html

wow - I knew she was serving well but to be doing better than Serena - that's impressive. Also, in such a tight match yesterday - she only double faulted once - amazing!

[Sinclair]

In case anyone wants to read about Sam's Sportsmanship award, the full article is here.

I liked what she had to say. Graceful, indeed. And classy.


Bryans, Stosur win inaugural US Open Sportsmanship Awards

“Great sports make a sport great and Samantha Stosur is a perfect choice for the US Open Sportsmanship Award,” said Vegosen of the 2011 US Open singles champion. “Samantha is a phenomenal player and also exhibits the type of quality and tradition in our sport that we want to showcase. When someone like Samantha has accomplished as much as she has and is still a class act, it shows that character is really important in the game and in life.”

"I feel extremely honored to accept the Sportsmanship Award,” said Stosur. “I always try to compete hard and growing up watching my idols, I admired the players who were graceful in victory or defeat. It was a surprise to receive the award and nice to take home the beautiful trophy, although not quite the big one I was after."

[stromatolite]

Thanks for posting this Sinclair. Classy indeed. Pity that they didn't include the quotes from Todd Martin, which were a lot more personal and heartfelt than the slicker Vegosen speech. But that was probably because it contained some pretty pointed references to the general lack of sportsmanship in tennis these days.

Interesting as well that the US media finally picked up the story after it was awarded to the Bryans as well as to Sam, but couldn't think of anything to write about it other than that the awards had been presented to those three players. Pretty well all the papers that ran the same 10-line story on this had no trouble at all devoting several metres of print to Patrick McEnroe saying that Taylor Townsend is too fat.

[annetcl]

Nice words from Serena during her interview just after her quarterfinal win :

Q. I know you can't control this, but are you disappointed you won't have a return match with Stosur? Was that something you were looking forward to?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I definitely ‑‑ I like her. I think she's really nice. I also really like Vika. But I was kinda hoping she won, and at the same time was hoping Vika won. It was a good match. I actually ended up getting nervous watching it. I was like, Why am I so nervous? I think she gave a great effort; she staged an unbelievable comeback in that match. For her to have lost a lot to Victoria and to do so well in that particular match, it can only help her career.

[Adomoose]

Sam has been confirmed as Tomic's partner for Australia at the Hopman Cup 2013. I think this is a very smart move as she is guaranteed of at least three matches. And even better because I am attending both this event and Sydney tourney

[stromatolite]

Originally Posted by Adomoose

Sam has been confirmed as Tomic's partner for Australia at the Hopman Cup 2013. I think this is a very smart move as she is guaranteed of at least three matches. And even better because I am attending both this event and Sydney tourney

This is good news, thanks for posting!

Sam and Bernard seem to me to be the ultimate odd couple, but Hopman Cup is usually a fun tournament with no points at stake, so might be a better way for Sam to kick of the year than Brisbane. Early exits there have set the tone for two very ordinary OZ seasons in a row. And like you said, she is guaranteed three matches, which means that in the worst case scenario she'll be better primed for the AO than she was this year.

[Adomoose]

The most promising sign is that her only 4th round appearances at the Oz Open happened the only two years Sam previously played Hopman. We all know she is a momentum player so this preparation should assist her better for the Open. I am excited!