London 2012 Tennis: Stosur's woes on grass continue
Samantha Stosur's miserable record on grass continued as the Australian fifth seed slumped to a 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 defeat to Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the Olympic Games first round on Saturday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: July 28, 2012 10:27 pm IST
Samantha Stosur's miserable record on grass continued as the Australian fifth seed slumped to a 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 defeat to Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the Olympic Games first round on Saturday.
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Stosur has never been past the third round in 10 visits to Wimbledon and her allergy to grasscourt action showed no signs of disappearing under the Olympic banner.
The reigning US Open champion was beaten by unheralded Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus in the Wimbledon second round last month and she produced another lacklustre display aganst world number 45 Navarro.
"It's a great tournament to be a part of and you just don't want to lose first round," Stosur said.
Stosur had defeated Navarro in straight sets in the Wimbledon first round this year.
But the 28-year-old was the architect of her own downfall this time as she committed a remarkable 51 unforced errors and served five double-faults in a gruelling encounter that lasted two hours and 38 minutes.
Stosur admitted she had only herself to blame after failing to convert break points for a potentially match-winning 5-3 lead in the second set.
"I had break points at 4-3 in the second set which I just didn't convert and that was the last big chance that I had."
Despite the premature nature of her exit, Stosur insisted she was relatively happy with her performance on her least favourite surface.
"The third set was pretty tight, but overall I'm happy with what I did out there," she said.
"It's one of those matches where there were just a couple of points in it and I lost those ones.
"For sure she played better than at Wimbledon, but I thought I still played a pretty decent level.
"She went for a bit more, stood close to the baseline, maybe used her backhand down the line a bit more and just kept me a bit more off balance."