Sam Stosur: Slam Champion

Samantha Stosur dominated Serena Williams 6-2 6-3 in the 2011 US Open final and won her first major title!  She is the first Australian to win a major since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at '80 Wimbledon.  It is just Stosur's 3rd career title and first since '10 Charleston.  She had mostly slumped since making her first major final at the '10 French Open but pulled out of it this summer by making the Rogers Cup final (also made the Rome final on clay), and then going all the way at the US Open.  She defeated Arvidsson, Vandeweghe, 24-Petrova, 25-Kirilenko, 2-Zvonareva, Kerber, and 28-S.Williams to win the title.  She will rise to #7 in the world with this performance and becomes a contender to make the year end championships.

Serena Williams also had a good tournament but then was overmatched in the final and was broken 4 times while only breaking Stosur once.  She will be up to #14 in the world and has a chance to make the year end championships but without the 600 points she could have received for the championship, it will be an uphill battle.

There were 4 different slam champions this year, and 3 of them were first-time titlists.  The 4 different champs last occurred in 2008 (Sharapova-AO, Ivanovic-FO, Venus-W, Serena-US).  The last time 3 winners were first time champs was 2004 (Myskina-FO, Sharapova-W, Kuznetsova-US).  One might wonder if this meant a changing of guard, but Li is 29 and Stosur is 27.  It could mean the end of the old guard of Serena, Venus, Clijsters, etc although I wouldn't them out.  What it probably shows is the multitude of women that are now legitimate contenders at the majors.