Samantha Stosur is dreaming of a deep run after scorching into the second round of the Australian Open.
A decade of mostly disappointment and despair at Melbourne Park has failed to dampen Stosur’s spirits, with Australia’s oft-maligned but top-ranked player warning the doubters not to count her out after crushing Monica Niculescu in straight sets on Monday.
A former US Open champion and finalist at Roland Garros, Stosur said there was no reason why she couldn’t make a title run despite having never progressed beyond the round of 16 in a dozen previous cracks at her home major.
“Obviously I’ve had my struggles,” Stosur said after taking out the 48th-ranked Niculescu 6-4 6-1 in 79 minutes.
“I would love to do well here.
“Having the results I’ve had in other slams, I proved to myself that I can go deep in these tournaments and play well and beat a lot of the best players in the world.
“So I think that’s obviously a good thing to know.
“It doesn’t necessarily help me much today when I go out and play my first round but, look, the possibilities are there.
“Obviously I want to try and do as best I can here in Australia. If I can get results like that here like I have overseas, then I would walk away leaving Melbourne pretty happy.”
Stosur’s prospects of at least matching her best-ever runs in Melbourne – to the last 16 in 2006 and 2010 – improved significantly on Tuesday following the removal of 13th seed Andrea Petkovic from her pocket of the draw.
The 20th seed will instead meet either US wildcard Irina Falconi or fellow American Madison Brengle – Petkovic’s conqueror – if she can get past Coco Vandeweghe on Thursday.
“It’s going to be hard,” Stosur said. “Last time I played Coco, I lost to her in Miami in a really long, late match.”
Australia’s only other seed this year, Casey Dellacqua lived up to her newfound protected status with a 6-4 6-0 rout of Austrian Yvonne Meusburger.
Seeded 29th, Dellacqua belted 25 winners to Meusburger’s seven and dropped just eight points in the second set.
The 62-minute cake walk set up a second-round clash with highly-rated American youngster Madison Keys.
Hoping to repeat her charge last year to the fourth round, Dellacqua said she’d never felt better physically after enjoying a rare pre-season working on her fitness – the benefits of her remarkable rise from outside the top 200 to her career-high ranking.
“I really want to do well in Australia. I love playing here,” she said.
“Yeah, I’d love to continue to be in the tournament for as long as I can.”
Stosur’s and Dellacqua’s victories continued Australia’s great start the Open, with at least nine locals surviving the first round for the first time in 15 years.
