Samantha Stosur stepped in as a replacement for ill defending champion Petra Kvitova, but was soon ushered out of the WTA Championships by Sara Errani, first-time qualifier, who lost to Maria Sharapova on Day 1, but has now earned her chance to fight for a spot in the semifinals. There will be a tough obstacle, though. Errani is 0-22 against Top 5 players and her next opponent in the White Group is world No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska.
Today Errani cruised to a 6-3 2-6 6-0 victory over Stosur, whose aggression paid off in the second set, but she failed to build up on the momentum and berried by a total of 49 unforced errors to Errani’s 15 she lost the match, finalizing it with the seventh double fault. Their winners count was 44 for Stosur and 18 for Errani. It’s interesting that Errani hit more aces than Stosur, although it is two aces to one.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have certainly qualified for the prestigious semis, while the other two qualifiers will be determined in tomorrow’s matches of Sara Errani vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (the second match on schedule) and Victoria Azarenka vs. Li Na (the third match on schedule). Friday’s action opens with a match between Maria Sharapova and Samantha Stosur, but its outcome will not affect anything. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Sam was terrible! I couldn’t watch her lose this match! I was thinking how unrealistic it was that Sam was alternate while Errani was accepted, but the way she played yesterday proved that at the moment she was a true alternate. Or am I to harsh saying this?
Hopefully Radwanska will put Errani aside easily. I hope she gets through to the semis for the first time!
Can someone explain what is up with Sam Stosur? With her game, she should be crushing the competition. So sad.
Liz, apparently you underestimated Errani big time. She took Radwanska to great lengths today before losing. Actually, it turned out to be the longest best-of-three-sets match in tournament history.
https://womenstennisblog.com/2012/10/26/radwanska-again-in-the-longest-match-of-the-tournament-this-time-victorious/
Stosur, on the other hand, was terrible today against Sharapova as well!
Sabey, which game? 🙂