Sam Stosur Hopes She Will be Back in 2021 for another Australian Open

With four consecutive first round losses at the Australian Open, one would expect Sam Stosur not to be very excited about the prospect of playing another edition of her home Grand Slam. But the 35 year old says she wants to enjoy the challenge, according to 7news.

Speaking to AAP, Stosur, who is ranked No. 97 in the world, says, "You have to go out there, enjoy those experiences and when I can be like that, I play better tennis. There's only four countries that get to have a grand slam and we're one of them, so we're pretty fortunate. There's a lot of names people probably don't know that can do very well in these tournaments, so it's a matter of sometimes playing a good player and they beat you on the day. But because we're at home playing in Melbourne it seems so much worse, when in reality it's not."

The Aussie veteran also hopes to be back for another appearance in 2021, "I don't think this will be my last Aussie Open. I don't know how much time I've got playing out here, but I'm pretty confident I can make it through the year and come back again. I love what I do and I know once I stop, then I'm 100 per cent stopped because it's going to be hard to come back at this stage. While I've got these opportunities, I want to make the most of them."

Stosur is the defending women's doubles champion in Melbourne with China's Zhang Shuai. She meets a qualifier in the first round of the tournament, which begins on Monday.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/37eLrA4