The Last Word returns, and each weekday, starting on Monday, December 5, we'll give you our year-end thoughts about tennis' best players—this time focusing on the ATP and WTA Top 10. We'll alternate tours each day; here's who we've looked at so far.
Best of 2011
It takes only four full words: U.S. Open champion, d. Serena Williams.
Worst of 2011
While grass isn’t an ideal surface for Stosur, she was on the verge of falling out of the Top 10 as Wimbledon approached. She made the semis on grass at Eastbourne, but then lost in the first round of Wimbledon to No. 262 Melinda Czink, 6-3, 6-4, and fell to No. 11 by the beginning of August.
Year in Review
For years, Stosur was the WTA counterpart of the last man I wrote about in this series, Tomas Berdych. In fact, Stosur was even less consistent through the early portion of her career, to the point where she was once considered a borderline doubles specialist. Thus, her consistency and newfound determination were welcome in 2010 and 2011, although she still tends to hit rough patches that can last for weeks at a time.
Stosur got as far as the third round in her homeland just once in three tries in 2011; at least she did it at the main event, the Australian Open (l. to Petra Kvitova). She fared slightly better during the next segment, although she took a really baffling loss at Indian Wells to injury-ruined, floundering Dinara Safina.
Once standing on the clay she prefers, Stosur made her first semi of the year at Stuttgart (l. to Julia Goerges) and reached the final of Rome (l. to Maria Sharapova). She missed a big opportunity at the French Open, where was a semifinalist in 2009 and a finalist last year, by faltering in the third round to No. 51 Gisela Dulko.
Moving to American hard courts after her dispiriting loss at Wimbledon, Stosur had good tournaments in Toronto (l. in final to Serena Williams) and Cincinnati (l. in quarters to Sharapova). But Stosur finally put all the pieces together in the right order and configuration at Flushing Meadows, where she played an exceptionally mature, beautifully controlled final to craft a straight-sets upset of heavily favored Serena.
So what if she then lost back-to-back matches to Maria Kirilenko? Stosur was still floating at the time, but came back down to earth long enough to make the final at Osaka (l. to Marion Bartoli) and qualify for the semis at the WTA Championships (l. to Kvitova).
See for Yourself
One reason that Stosur’s game is more effective on hard and clay courts than on grass is because she has the best kick serve on the WTA. Here’s an excellent analysis of Stosur’s kicker, and how well it allows her to open up the court: