Retiring champion Samantha Stosur has extended her singles career by at least two days with a stirring fightback at her farewell Australian Open in Melbourne.
Stosur battled back from a set down to advance to the second round with a 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3 comeback win over American wildcard Robin Anderson on Tuesday.
Having fallen to 487th in the rankings after not winning a match since last year’s Open, Stosur also needed a wildcard entry into her record-setting 20th home grand slam campaign.
Despite excelling on New York’s hard courts and the Parisian clay, Stosur has never produced her finest tennis in Australia, with runs to the fourth round in 2006 and 2010 the former US Open champion’s best efforts at Melbourne Park.
In her 19 previous Open tilts, Stosur has exited eight times in the first round.
Her 2021 win over fellow Australian Destanee Aiava was her first at the Open since 2015 and Stosur hadn’t won a singles match at all since last year until Tuesday.
But after resolving to quit singles after one last Open, the one-time world No.4 had promised to go down swinging.
Instead, playing with freedom, Stosur pulled off a spirited victory in front of delighted home fans at Kia Arena.
“That was incredible,” she said. “That’s a match I’m gonna remember forever.
“It’s probably one of the best singles matches I’ve played in a very long time and to do it at home today … I guess it wasn’t gonna be the last, so happy to have another one.”
Attacking at every opportunity, the 37-year-old boldly rallied from 4-1 down in the first set to force a tiebreaker.
Undeterred at losing it, the dual grand slam finalist broke Anderson early in the second set and then held her nerve and serve to level the match on her fifth set point.
Her confidence and optimism rising, Stosur grabbed further breaks early in the deciding set before closing out the victory after two hours and 30 minutes.
“The goal coming into this last kind of month playing singles is just really enjoying myself,” Stosur said.
“Try and play as best I can. And I think every time I’ve been able to do that in my career, I’ve enjoyed it and played well and win or lose that’s all you can ask for.”
The steely win, celebrated by her parents and brother in the stands, set up a meeting on Thursday with either Russian 10th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Hungary’s Anna Bondar.
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