The Enigma (that’s capital T, capital E), upset in the first round at Wimbledon for the second year in a row, was off Court 14 on Tuesday afternoon and trudging to the locker room before the scattering of fans had finished clapping for her No. 262-ranked opponent.
Exactly what IS the deal with Sam Stosur?
Here’s what we know about the best woman player in Australia, who has a more or less permanent second home in Tampa, Fla, — She’s fit, she’s very athletic, she has a technique-perfect serve, she trains hard, she’s got an excellent temperament on court, she’s ranked No. 10 in the world.
And she shows up at Wimbledon and can’t play a lick.
Last year, she beat down Justine Henin, No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 4 Jelena Jankovic to reach the final of the French Open, where she lost to Francesca Schiavone. Two weeks later, at Wimbledon, with a glowing future within her grasp, she lost in the first round to Kaia Kanepi.
This year, more of the same. Last week at Eastbourne, on the southern coast of England, she whipped No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the quarters before going down to Marion Bartoli in the semis. Still. . .quarters in a grass-court lead-up to Wimbledon and a big win. That’s great preparation. She talked about how optimistic she was heading for London.
Yet there we were again on a blustery Tuesday afternoon, with Stosur facing Melinda Czink, who had won one Wimbledon match in six appearances at the All England Club and who had gone out in the first round of 14 previous Grand Slams. You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of quality backhands Sam hit off the Wimbledon grass.
I don’t want to totally denigrate Czink, who has been as high as No. 38. She has an excellent serve and is a veteran player. But whatever vague glimmer her career once displayed ended long ago and she got into this Wimbledon on a protected ranking.
Stosur was down love-3 in the opening set before she could put together a run of points in this 6-3, 6-4 defeat, but, though she didn’t play well, my sense was that Czink had a hot day serving and deserved some credit.
I expected a turn-around in set 2, but what I got was a 4-0 Czink lead in just 15 minutes. Stosur has a big, flat forehand that plays well on grass, and I’ve seen her control points with her backhands on clay. But for whatever reason, it’s just one flop after another on Wimbledon grass.
Can’t win the big ones? Is that where her reputation is headed? Losing one French Open final doesn’t offer enough evidence to support that and, in fact, you could make a stronger argument that she can’t win the small ones.
Kanepi is a mid-ranking quality player, but the loss to Czink this year is a humiliation. It’s just very difficult to understand how a player of Stosur’s talents, who has won often enough to crack top-10 (she was No. 4 back in February) can play this poorly on the world’s biggest stage.
She is The Enigma.