World number five Samantha Stosur today revealed the winter grass at home as the key to her preparations for her third Olympic Games.

Stosur’s last competitive match was a second round loss to Holland’s Arantxa Rus at the Olympic venue, Wimbledon last month which opened up  the opportunity for Stosur to make a rare mid-season visit back to Australia before joining the Australian Olympic Team in London this week.

“I actually went back to Australia for about 12 days which was nice and got on a couple of grass courts there which was I guess a bit of a surprise for me, I didn’t think that we would get that in winter at home so that was a bonus,” said Stosur. “Then coming back here we have been able to get on it pretty much every single day – so as far as that goes, I been getting a lot of time on the grass”.

“My first round match at Wimbledon was very good and then the second one I lost but I had lots of chances and then kind of let it go, so in some ways it was good but then obviously disappointing that you don’t get through it again,” said Stosur. “I think there were certainly things that I improved and maybe having another week on it (the grass) I can try and improve a bit more”.

When asked to compare and rank the Olympics to other Grand Slams, Stosur indicated it was a highlight on the calendar for every tennis player.

“I think if you spoke to any of the players it is very very high,” said Stosur. “We love playing in it, we love being a part of it and it is certainly a highlight of the year.

”Everyone is here ... everyone who is able to play is here and they want to do well”.

When pressed further as to whether she would prefer the Wimbledon singles title or the Olympic gold medal, the choice was pretty straight forward.
“Oh I don’t ‘know, it is pretty hard to say ... when you don’t have either, you would take either,” joked Stosur. “If it ended up being an Olympic gold medal I would certainly be very happy”.

The Olympic tennis draw will take place at 11am on Thursday at Wimbledon. Sam Stosur will compete in the womens singles and doubles with Casey Dellacqua.

Jo Banning in London
olympics.com.au