Finally, the drought is over. Samantha Stosur is headed back to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2012 after pulling off the upset over the sixth-seeded Simona Halep in the fourth round of the 2016 French Open.
Stosur will now look to continue her run when she prepares for a date with Bulgaria’s Tsevetana Pironkova, who is also fresh off a shocking victory of her own against No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Read on below for closer look at this showdown.
For more sweet tennis betting opportunities, click here to check out the other quarterfinals clash between Garbine Muguruza and Shelby Rogers.
Samantha Stosur’s been playing really well throughout the French Open. She’s won all but one of her matches in straight-sets, including her most recent victory over the heavily-favored Simona Halep in the fourth round. In that match, the 32-year-old veteran showcased her power and service game by firing 29 winners, converting 78 percent of her first serve points and winning 54 percent of her second serve points. Stosur also managed to limit herself to just 22 unforced errors in that win.
Looking at that all-around performance, it’s safe to say that Stosur, a former finalist at Roland Garros, should be able to carry herself to another win against Tsvetana Pironkova. The Australian has defeated Pironkova in three of their four head-to-head matches. That stretch includes their second-round meeting in the 2014 Australian Open, where Stosur beat the Bulgarian in convincing fashion, 6-2, 6-0.
However, Stosur can’t let her confidence get the better of her. Pironkova’s been making some serious noise of her own in the previous rounds of this tournament, winning against the likes of Johanna Larrson, Sloane Stephens and most recently Agnieszka Radwanska. These victories are more than enough reasons to expect a valiant stand from Pironkova.
Stosur is 15-4 on clay this season.
Betting on Tsvetana Pironkova
As mentioned earlier, Tsevetana Pironkova won’t be easy to defeat. She’s beaten tougher opponents in order to reach the quarterfinal stage of the tournament. And more importantly, there’s no reason for her to show any signs of nervousness because the pressure will mostly be on Samantha Stosur.
In fact, the 28-year-old Bulgarian should actually be feeling pretty optimistic about her chances of winning. She won against Stosur in their most recent encounter at Eastbourne last year, during which Pironkova notched her first-career victory over the Australian, 7-5, 7-6 (0). That match was played on grass, though, which is actually Stosur’s weakest surface.
Lastly, Pironkova’s power is quite impressive, averaging almost 30 winners per contest in her four previous matches. That said, she ought to continue blasting her way through each set and hope that it can eventually tire out Stosur down the stretch.
Pironkova, who’s set to make her first-ever quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros, is 6-4 in her past 10 matches overall.
