Samantha Stosur - Playing Style

Playing Style

General
An accomplished doubles player, Stosur in her early years developed a serve and volley style of play but as the years progressed, she started to feel more comfortable hitting on the baseline and coming to the net less often. Although she is known for being a doubles specialist and having great volleys and drop-shots while playing doubles, in her singles matches, Stosur has a tendency to miss-hit these shots. Her right-handed forehand ground-strokes, hit with heavy top-spin, are considered her best, as evidenced by her often choosing to hit inside-out forehands. She can hit forehand winners from any side of the court, and her motion when hitting her forehands makes it hard for her opponents to guess where she will hit it to. Accordingly, many players attack her backhand side, which was considered a weakness of her game; however in 2010, Stosur adopted Pat Rafter's signature backhand slice, to add to her game and help her set up points. She has also improved on her two-handed backhand generating winners on occasion, particularly her backhand down the line. Stosur is also noted for her athleticism and after bouncing back from a career-threatening Lyme Disease, she has become one of the fittest players on tour.

Serve
Because of its power, kick and variety, Stosur's serve is widely considered one of the best on the women's tour. Her first serve, however erratic, reaches more than 190 km/h (118 mph) on a regular basis. Her second, a high bouncing kick serve, is highly rated as being the best second serve in the women's game by media and players alike, and was thought to play a key role in her French Open success in 2009 and 2010. One thing that Stosur has changed in her game, thanks to coach David Taylor, is the fact that her serve has been less predictable with Stosur sometimes even using her kick serve as first serves. Her good serving motion has helped her overhead smashes and she rarely misses those shots.

Surface
Her favourite surface is hard court. Stosur has also mentioned that her least favourite surface is grass and this is mostly because her biggest weapons (top-spin forehand & kick-serve) are not very effective on this surface. Her performances at Wimbledon have reflected this, as she has only gone past the second round once on the lone grass-court Grand Slam event.

Weakness
In her earlier years on the WTA tour, Stosur's real weakness was her inability to handle the pressure at major matches and being poor at closing out matches. In her first four WTA tour finals, she won the first set only to lose the match. On her off-days, she can hit over 50 unforced errors. She has shown great improvement in these areas, and the weaknesses are seen less frequently now, as evidenced by her calm dispatch of the four-time Roland Garros champion and former World No. 1 Justine Henin; one time Roland Garros champion and the then-World No. 1 Serena Williams; and former World No. 1 Jelena Janković, in the 4th round, quarter-final and semi-final at the 2010 Roland Garros respectively.