Birth and Rebirth for Sam Stosur

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Birth and Rebirth for Sam Stosur

By Richard Pagliaro

It's been a life-changing season of birth and rebirth for Samantha Stosur.

The 36-year-old Brisbane native became a first-time parent when her partner Liz Astling gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Genevieve, on June 16th.

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Stosur celebrated a winning rebirth in Melbourne with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Destanee Aiava in an all-Aussie wild card clash on John Cain Arena.

It was Stosur's first Australian Open win in six years and snapped a streak of three straight Grand Slam opening-round exits.

Taking a two-and-a-half month break from the game for family time to fully focus on baby Evie has also given Stosur time to reflect and recharge.

"I played the 125 in Indian Wells, I think it was late February, we got home as soon as Indian Wells was canceled, and, yeah, didn't hit a ball for two-and-a-half months when my daughter was born, and then started hitting a little bit kind of September," Stosur told the media. "The last couple of months was in full, you know, normal preseason kind of training.

"So it's a steady, slow progression after many, many weeks off that I haven't had for a very long time. Yeah, it was certainly a very different year for me, but, you know, an exciting one, as well."

Working with coach Rennae Stubbs, Stosur is trying to play to her strengths using her kick serve to set up first-strike forehands. When Stosur can control the center of the court and hammer her heavy topspin forehand into the corners she can still play attacking baseline tennis as she showed winning 62 of her 76 points in rallies that were eight shots or less.

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Playing her 19th Australian Open main draw, Stosur nudged her career record in Melbourne to 19-18.Maybe more wins will come if she can continue to simplify her attack and try to take the offensive from the outset.

The woman who defeated Serena Williams to win the 2011 US Open championship had to confront a littany of loss in her comeback.

Not only was Stosur shouldering that six-year Melbourne winless streak and the three-match major slide, she was sometimes taking a pounding in practice sets against opponents who were much sharper from more match play.

Speculation on Stosur's Melbourne singles drought range from the surface being too fast robbing her of the required time to set up for her forehand to the belief she put so much pressure on herself to excel in front of the home crowd it proved counterproductive.

Patience, perseverence and quite possibly the perspective gained from parenthood helped Stosur stay positive and accept we all must accept loss as part of the process of growth.

"Playing competitive tennis, it's not easy to, you know, step out on court and play those first matches sometimes," Stosur said. "That's kind of the way I ended up looking at it last week was kind of blowing the cobwebs out and doing that.

"Yeah, look, there were certainly some times through the preseason when you start playing points again after such a long time. It was hard against all the girls who just played French and US Open and all that. You know, it wasn't always a good feeling losing set after set, but knew that, okay, I've still got another month to play until it really matters.

"And that's kind of the steady progression that I was able to give myself I guess, knowing that you've got so much time not to kind of burn yourself out and go too hard too early."

Now the going gets tougher.

The 2019 Australian Open doubles champion will have the fans on her side and a dangerous opponent across the net in Jessica Pegula.

The pride of Buffalo, Pegula toppled two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-4 for her first AO win. While Pegula has been slowed by injuries, the quicker AO courts should suit her style of taking the ball on the rise, redirecting down the line and playing fast and flat.

Can Stosur's skill mixing her heavy topspin forehand with the backhand slice mute Pegula's timing and knack for the kill shot down the line?

We'll find out soon enough. For now, Stosur is savoring long-pursued singles success in Oz.

"She hits a good ball. Flat, hard. Obviously had a very good win today against Vika," Stosur said of Pegula. "Yeah, I'll have to be on my game and have a plan again.

"I really stuck to my plan well tonight so I'll do the same thing against her. Yeah, hopefully it's good enough."

Photo credit: Darrian Traynor/Getty

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