Grand Sam: Samantha Stosur’s Serve Motion

Two signature shots: heavy serve, heavy forehand. Sam Stosur and I both grew up in the state of Queensland, Australia, in towns about 30 minutes apart. I was a couple of years ahead of Sam in the Australian juniors and first saw her play when she was 13 years old at a women’s open tournament. Even then she was heralded as one of Australia’s great hopes. When I watched her play, I saw why. I was immediately impressed with her fluid, natural service motion and her heavy penetrating forehand. I had never seen a girl that young with a kick serve that good–much better than most of the boys playing the same tournament. The same could be said about her topspin forehand, which resembled that of a male tour player. At that young age, both strokes were technically very similar to the way she plays today. Sam was a fan of men’s tennis. From the beginning she wanted to play like a guy and trained with my junior male rivals in the Queensland area. But Sam also admired the way Steffi Graf played, dominating points with her forehand and using her slice backhand to set that up. Developing that type…