Marina Stakusic played so badly in the first game of her quarter-final against Lulu Sun in Toronto yesterday morning that I wondered just how long the match might last, especially when Sun held to love after forcing Stakusic into errors on the first three points. A hint of how that might change, however, came next up in what became the longest game of the match. I wrote in my quick summary after the match how I hadn’t been thrilled about the line calls, and that first became obvious in this game. Stakusic started with a double fault, which Sun followed with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner. An even better cross-court backhand came from Stakusic, but she had to save a break point to get to the first deuce, and lost the next point with an overhit forehand.
Sun put her next forehand return into the net, but the serve was clearly long and, at best, should have been called a fault. It seemed fairly obvious that Sun had seen that, too, and didn’t actually play the return as a legitimate shot. Her final shot after the third deuce was called wide into the tramline when it wasn’t, and with Stakusic nowhere near the ball she should have got that point, and her nice backhand volley that took the next point should actually have won her the game. Sun hit a fabulous forehand winner down the line to get the advantage after the fifth deuce, but lost a great rally on the next point with a forehand over the baseline. Even though it would have only meant a seventh deuce, the second serve on the following point was so clearly long that Sun again didn’t play a proper return, and the ball landing in the net meant that the game had finally finished after they had been going for ten minutes.
Sun held comfortably in the next game before hitting a fabulous backhand winner down the line on the way to breaking Stakusic’s serve again. Consecutive aces weren’t enough for her to win the next game, which she lost with a mishit backhand up into the rafters after the second deuce. Not only did she have to deal with dodgy line calls, but it was blindingly obvious the small crowd had eyes only for their own player, as Sun hit two incredible backhand winners down the line that they were sitting on in her next service game – and there wasn’t a single clap! Funnily enough, there was a rather different reaction to Stakusic’s two glorious winners in the next game. All of that meant that Sun was now serving for the set.
She hit two beautiful forehand winners before having to save a break point to get to a deuce, but she again got robbed by a poor line call. This time it came after the second deuce, when Stakusic had already been forced into a return error. The young Canadian hit an inside-out forehand return that clearly landed in the tramlines, but the line judge, who was moving from the centre to that side, called it good when still well out of position. Sun eventually converted her third set point when Stakusic hit two unforced errors after the fourth deuce. The set had taken 52 minutes.
The second set started with two comfortable holds, but the next four games went to the receivers. Stakusic hit fabulous winners down the opposite sidelines on consecutive shots when Sun served the fourth game, but the left-hander was robbed of an ace on the next point when her first serve was called wide – with Stakusic already walking away. Sun did win the point on her second serve, but only on Stakusic’s second shot over the baseline in the rally. Stakusic held serve in the seventh game to end the sequence of breaks, and they each hit great inside-out forehand winners as Sun went on to hold next up. Stakusic then held to love, but the third point went to a cross-court backhand that landed way over the line. Sun held again to keep the scores level, and then came the game which looked to decide the result.
A forced error from Sun was followed by a backhand from her that hit the net cord and fell into the court, and that took them to a second deuce. Stakusic hit a forehand into the tramlines, and then it was her turn to fall foul of the officials when her faulty serve was followed by another which was called out, when it fact it was a perfect ace down the tee. There was so much confusion that the umpire didn’t even record it as a double fault.
That break gave Sun the chance to serve for the match, and a return error from Stakusic gave her two chances to do so. What was probably the best rally of the match came on the first of them, with Sun being forced to hit a cross-court forehand into the tramlines, and she was forced to hit a forehand into the net on the second one. She hit a forehand over the baseline to give away the advantage, and then it was her turn to be robbed of an ace when her first serve was called wide. She lost the point on her second serve, and that took them to a tie-break. The crucial mistakes from Sun came when she lost her third point with a cross-court forehand into the tramlines, and she double faulted to lose the next one as well. She did get one mini-break straight back with another beautiful forehand winner down the line, but Stakusic went on to forced her final return of serve to go back over the baseline. The set had taken an hour and four minutes.
Stakusic hit a fabulous cross-court backhand winner during the opening game of the final set, but Sun eventually finished off the hold with an ace. She then broke Stakusic’s serve, finishing with a fabulous forehand winner down the line, and won her own second game to consolidate the break, but only after saving two break points. Stakusic did break back the next time Sun served, with the next three games seeing comfortable holds. There were some terrific winners along the way, but the key shots where the unforced errors which cost Sun a service break in the ninth game. That gave her only one chance to make amends, but instead she hit two more unforced errors to give Stakusic a match point. Another great serve saw Sun’s backhand return go into the net, and the match was over after two hours and 45 minutes. The final score was 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.