Samantha Stosur became the first Australian to win Charleston by crushing Vera Zvonareva 6-0, 6-3. It was only Stosur’s second title, but by far her biggest one -- she won her first title last fall at Osaka.
Her 52-minute victory over the Russian was the fastest in tournament history.
Down 3-0 in the second set, the always emotional Zvonareva demolished her racket. “You gotta try to change something up, even emotionally, just maybe break a racket, forget about what was happening,” Zvonareva said.
The powerful Stosur, who reached the Roland Garros semis last year and said early in the week that she believes she can reach the French final, was thrilled. "Having made the (French Open) semis last year and after this week, I am feeling great on the clay," said Stosur, who nailed 36 winners against Zvonareva and made just 11 unforced errors. "I have played five consistently good matches here so going into Roland Garros I am going to be ready to go and definitely trying to at least repeat last year."–M.C.