Stosur keeps quiet on retirement plan
SAM Stosur has a retirement date in mind – she is just wary of telling the rest of us about it yet.
Stosur, 34, endured a testing 2018 and with a world ranking of 74, she is headed for her lowest year-end finish since 2003.
She will look to set the foundation for a better Australian Open result when she plays at the Brisbane International, having lost in the first round at Melbourne Park in each of her past three campaigns.
The Gold Coaster’s modest record in Australian tournaments detracts from her career efforts in the eyes of many compatriots, but her $US17.76 million in total earnings and nine tour titles, including the 2011 US Open crown, tells a different and much rosier story.
Stosur said she had an idea of when she would retire from the tour but was reluctant to make the plan public.
“That’s because if you want to keep playing (beyond the date) you look a bit of a fool and if you quit earlier, you look silly as well,’’ Stosur said in Brisbane yesterday.
“I have the things in place that I want to do while I’m playing. I’ll play for as long as I can.
“I don’t know how many more Brisbane Internationals or Australian Opens I will have but I still love playing and as long as I can compete, I will.
“It’s a couple of tournaments where, without knowing how many I have left, it would be nice to go out on a bit of a high.
“I’m ranked back where I will get into most events again and I feel like it’s all there.
“It (results in 2018) has been a little disappointing but I managed to go the whole year without getting injured.’’
The former world No.4 will
need a wildcard to avoid having to play Brisbane qualifying, having finished her 2018 season with three straight firstround losses in Asia and winning 22 matches in an exhaustive 27-event season.
“I probably won’t play quite as many (in 2019) but having missed so much of 2017, I wanted to play a lot,’’ she said.
Stosur’s greatest moment in tennis came in the 2011 US Open final, in which she dispatched Serena Williams in straight sets in a match highlighted by prolonged complaints about umpiring by her American opponent.
Recalling her own experience of a Williams tantrum in a US Open final, Stosur reckons it was not the place for the American former world No.1 to portray her clash with an umpire in last month’s New York final as a fight for equality.
“I don’t think the final of the US Open is the time to lay that all out there,’’ Stosur said .