New mum Stosur to skip rest of 2020 but vows to return

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Australia's Samantha Stosur won the 2011 US Open. (Reuters)
Australia's Samantha Stosur won the 2011 US Open. (Reuters)

Sydney - The women's WTA Tour is scheduled to restart with the Palermo Ladies Open on Aug. 3

By Reuters

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Published: Sun 26 Jul 2020, 12:15 PM

Last updated: Sun 26 Jul 2020, 2:23 PM

Former US Open champion Samantha Stosur has decided to sit out the rest of 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic after becoming a mother last month but the 36-year-old Australian has vowed to return to court next year.
Stosur recently announced this month that her partner Liz Astling gave birth to daughter Evie in June.
The women's WTA Tour is scheduled to restart with the Palermo Ladies Open on Aug. 3 after the Covid-19 outbreak forced the suspension of professional events in early March. The US Open and French Open Grand Slams are still on the 2020 calendar.
"With the schedule coming up, with COVID, with quarantine and with all the other things that you're going to have to deal with, I've decided that I'm going to take the rest of the year off," Stosur told Tennis Australia.
"I'm going to stay here, enjoy being with my family, go through all those little milestones that Evie is going to have in the next six months and just really enjoy being home."
Stosur reached a career-high ranking of fourth in 2011 and defeated Serena Williams in New York for her maiden Grand Slam singles title the same year.
She hopes family bliss would work in her favour when she returns to playing.
"Many players have done this same thing and I think the resounding comment is 'I actually played better and I enjoy it' and you come off the court and you don't worry about whether that was a bad loss, or whatever happened on court," she said.


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