Solid Stosur reaches semis

Samantha Stosur became the first Australian woman to reach the semi-finals in 21 years with a 6-1 6-3 victory over unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea on Wednesday. “I’m just over the moon, happy, excited,” she said. “Every single positive emotion I think possible at the moment.” In a powerful and steady display, Stosur adeptly mixed up the pace and depth of her shots, overwhelming her younger foe with her vicious kick serve and refusing to let the outcome of the match be entirely determined from the baseline. While Stosur has never won a tour title, this victory will see her into the top 20 for first time. The 25-year-old is a multiple Grand Slam winner in doubles, and the Aussie has worked diligently this year to stay clam, trust her shots, and display more than a big forehand and serve. History in the making As a result, her singles game has improved. Her two-handed backhand is more forceful and most importantly, she finally believes that she can go shot for shot with the elite players. “The last few years I've had a lot of doubles success, which is great. I've enjoyed every match I've gone out to play, and that's fine. But this year I definitely made a conscious effort that singles was a priority. It always was, but I needed to change a few things to really make that happen. Now I'm starting to see good rewards for those decisions.” Stosur, the first Aussie to reach the semis since Nicole Provis in 1988, will meet Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. While she’ll be the underdog against the former Roland Garros finalist, she's reveling in the clay and looking dangerous. “I've really started to learn a lot better how to use my game on this surface,’ she said. “It's a good surface for me. It took me a little while to realize that and to believe it and trust that my game matched up well with the clay. But now I can see that it does.”