Top seed Sam Stosur has put together her most complete performance of the season to breeze into the semi-finals of the Hobart International.
Stosur put recent struggles behind her to notch an impressive 6-3 6-2 quarter-final victory over Serbian world No.34 Bojana Jovanovski today.
The Australian rediscovered her rhythm on serve in the best conditions of the tournament so far, and eliminated the unforced errors that had threatened her Australian Open preparations.
She finished it off with a superb serve down the T to set up a semi-final against seventh-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova, who beat American Alison Riske 6-4 7-5.
World No.17 Stosur had barely scraped into the quarter-finals, needing third-set tiebreakers to down her early opponents after losing all three matches at the Hopman Cup. But she won 72 per cent of points on her first serve against Jovanovski, who made the Australian Open fourth round last year, to set up an emphatic victory in one hour and 12 minutes.
The 2011 US Open champion has been desperate to better her second-round exit at the Australian Open last year, and her best effort in Melbourne of the fourth round in 2010.
The 29-year-old’s steadily improving game took a giant stride forward as the first set unfolded.
Finding herself down a break at 2-1 on the back of the unforced errors that had characterised her tournament, she hit back immediately with a break of her own to level at 2-2.
She saved three break points in the next game and broke in the eighth game to lead 5-3.
Serving for the set, she didn’t concede another point, finishing it emphatically with an ace that had the healthy Hobart crowd elated.
Jovanovski’s fourth double fault gifted Stosur a break in the fifth game of the second for a 3-2 lead.
The Australian broke again for 5-2 and served out the match.
“It’s just nice to know that you’ve been able to finish a match off and play well from start to finish rather than playing well, having a bit of a dip and going a bit up and down,” Stosur said.
Stosur said it was a confidence-boosting win ahead of next week’s Australian Open.
“There’s no better confidence boost for someone than winning matches,” Stosur said.
“You can be practising and hitting the ball great but when it comes down to these matches, that’s where it counts.
“That’s something I haven’t been able to do in recent previous years here.
“Now to come here and know I’ve won at least three matches this week, that’s a great feeling going into a grand slam.”