Stosur brushes aside Yakimova in Brisbane
January 02, 2012 16:11:23 UK
Samantha Stosur began 2012 in fine style by easily dispatching Belarus' Anastasiya Yakimova in her first match at the Brisbane International on Monday.
The US Open champion was in top form during the 80 minutes-long match, as she utilised her fast and accurate serve to the best of her advantage and inflicted a 6-2 6-3 defeat on her opponent.
Samantha Stosur is 17.00 to win the 2012 Australian Open, while Serena William is 5.00 and Petra Kvitova is priced at 3.50.
While Stosur revelled on her serve, her opponent Yakimova was extremely poor during her service games and she double faulted half a dozen times to gift the match to the powerful Queenslander.
In the post-match interview, Stosur said: "It's fantastic to come out here and start my year off like this here in Brisbane where I love to play in a great atmosphere, I loved every second of it. It's been huge a huge experience for me [after winning the US Open]. I never had people get my bags for me off the carousel at the airport, people want to do everything for you."
But it wasn't all good for Australian females on the WTA circuit as Stosur's countrywoman Olivia Rogowska lost a closely contested match against Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycov by a margin of 6-2 4-6 6-4.
Stosur joins the likes of Andrea Petkovic, Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams in the second round of the Brisbane-based tournament, which will be her tune-up before this month's Australian Open.
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