Australia’s Samantha Stosur poses with her winner’s trophy after winning the final match against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard at the Japan Women’s Open in Osaka, western Japan, yesterday.
TOKYO: Australia’s Sam Stosur fought back from a set down to claim the Japan Open for a second time yesterday and deny Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard her first WTA title.
The former US Open champion beat her 19-year-old opponent 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in Osaka to clinch the $250,000 hard court title, with her second of the year ensuring she has won more than once in a season for the first time.
The Australian wore down Bouchard with some booming forehands into an open court after pushing the Canadian out wide with a clever kick serve.
It was a fifth career title for the world number 20 and second in Osaka following a 2009 success.
The fifth seeded Bouchard began her first WTA final confidently, breaking her 29-year-old opponent three times en route to taking the set 6-2.
The second set looked to be heading for a tiebreak at 5-5 but third seed Stosur stepped up her game, breaking the Canadian as she won seven of the next eight points to seal it 7-5.
Bouchard held serve to open the deciding set but Stosur again went on a run, claiming the next four games to open up a lead she would not relinquish to seal victory in two hours and 13 minutes.
“Eugenie was playing really well today. I just had to stick it out in the second set, and I’m pretty happy with how things went in the third,” Stosur said in an on court interview.
“I love playing here. I love the site and the fans are great - I always feel like I have lots and lots of support when I come to Osaka.”
Meanwhile, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga wasted little time in catching a flight out of Shanghai after losing a weekend semi-final to Novak Djokovic, insuring that he will make his start as top seed at this week’s Austrian Open beginning tonday.
The Frenchman will test the fragile knee which kept him off the courts for nearly three months from Wimbledon until September as he competes in a demanding fourth event in the last five weeks.
“I missed the game, it was tough to see my friends playing,” said the Frenchman of his enforced absence.
“But it can be good because it makes your mind clear, you come back sometimes stronger. That’s what I will try to do.” Tsonga, second seed Tommy Haas, number three Italian Fabio Fognini and Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, seeded fourth, all receive opening-round byes indoors at the Stadthalle.
Tsonga won the title in 2011, his only previous appearance in the Austrian capital. Defending champion Juan Martin del Potro is not competing at this edition.
Haas is also playing after injury problems, with the 35-year-old German withdrawing in the Shanghai Masters last week with back pains prior to his third-round match with Del Potro.
The week will be crucial as the race to the eight-man season championships next month heats up with three weeks of qualifying play remaining.Agencies
