Stosur was on fire early in the match and got an early break to set herself up for the first set win. She held her composure to win the set 6-2. Stosur got two breaks in the first set.

Early in the second set Serena hit a big winner but before Stosur had completed a shanked shot she called out “C’mon”. The umpire called for a replay of the point and Serena was not too happy. After some discussion she was given a point penalty. That handed Stosur the break.

Serena was mad and was hitting the ball with anger and got a break. It looked like she might get on top of the Australian. Stosur did not let this get to her and she got the break back.

From there it was still a long way to go and nerves can quite often crush a player. Not today, not for Sam. She maintained her composure and broke two more times to win the match 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour 13 minutes.

This was not just any match. It handed Stosur her first Grand Slam singles title. After missing out on her chance at the 2010 French Open Stosur would have wondered if she could get back to a final for a second chance. After playing great tennis thoughout the fortnight she did it.

Not many picked the no. 9 seed to go all the way, especially today playing against Serena, the former world no. 1 and three time US Open champion.

Sam Stosur is the first Australian women to win the US Open singles crown since Margaret Court back in 1973. It is also ten years since an Australian won at the US Open in singles when Lleyton Hewitt claimed the title.

“I’m still kind of speechless. I can’t actually believe I won this tournament,” Stosur said later.

Below is a video of Sam Stosur thanking her fans after she won the 2011 US Open women’s tennis title.

Stosur will face the winner of the Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki match.

On Facebook yesterday Sam said “I think my Semi Final is at 6pm on Grandstand, if anyone wants to
watch the ONLY SEMI FINAL not on Arthur Ashe Stadium, come out tomorrow.” She was having a go at the scheduling committee for not putting her match on Arthur Ashe stadium. She now does not have to worry about missing out on Ashe now!

At last years French Open Stosur lost in the final against Francesca Schiavone.

If Stosur goes onto win the US Open title to claim her first Grand Slam singles crown, she would be the first Australian woman to win since Margaret Smith Court in 1973.

Stosur has reached her first US Open tennis semifinal where she will play the winner of the Angelique Kerber  v Flavia Pennetta. Stosur lost in the quarterfinals last year while Zvonareva was the runnerup.

After a good rest due to the rain delays Stosur was always in control of the match, which was a nice change following her two previous matches that went to three sets.

The Australian is chasing her first grand slam title after being the runnerup at last year’s French Open.

Just one of the 28 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players survived the crash.

Some of the team members killed in Wednesday’s crash were Lokomotiv coach, a NHL veteran Brad McCrimmon from Canada; assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev, one of the first Russians who was part the New York Rangers Stanley Cup winning team; and Pavol Demitra, who played for the St. Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakian national team captain.

Condolences, thoughts, prayers to all on board the flight, and to their families.

Read more KHL team in deadly plane crash

Stosur next lined up against another Russian in the fourth round, this time it was Maria Kirilenko. Australia’s top ranked player was on the losing end of a record 17-15 tie-break in the second set of that match. According to the WTA the 17-15 tie-break is the longest for women in a grand slam.

The no. 9 seeded Australian had five match points in that tie-break after winning the first set 6-2. Perhaps losing the set got the better of her for a short period of time as she fell behind 0-2 in the deciding third set.

Stosur regrouped and fought off the Russian’s challenge to claim the match 6-2, 7-6(15), 6-3.

Yet another Russian is waiting for Stosur in the quarter-finals. This time it will be world no. 2 Vera Zvonareva. She reached the quarters after defeating German Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-3.

Stosur leads the head to head series 7-2. She has won the past seven matches against Zvonareva including two wins in 2011. One on clay at Stuttgart and on grass at Eastbourne.

After the incident he has said he is ok.

On the court he managed to defeat David Nalbandian 7-6(5), 6-1, 7-5 in 2 hours and 39 minutes.

Playing at home in Australia the Socceroos were stunned when in the 15th minute Thailand took the lead when striker Teerasil Dangda finished a 70 metre counterattack.

It took until the 58th minute for Australia to level the scores when Josh Kennedy tapped home off a rebound from a Matt McKay shot.

With time running out the Socceroos were looking likely to face an embarrassing 1-1 draw before Alex Brosque saved the day scoring with just four minutes left to play.

“It feels like a loss,” admitted Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer post-match. “It was one of our worst performances for a long time and there are no excuses. We weren’t good enough at times, but at least we won which is the positive.”

The Socceroos now head off to the Middle East where they will play Saudi Arabia on 6 September.

The other teams in Group D, Oman and Saudi Arabia played out a 0-0 draw.

Stosur defeated Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 6-3 while Tomic defeated Michael Yani 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Here is some of what Tomic said in his press conference that followed:

“Not as comfortable as it looked.  He’s a difficult player; beat me twice already.  I beat him last time, so I knew I how to play him.  He’s also got some matches under his belt.  I was pretty confident. I’m happy the way I played today and got through.”

Read the full interview or watch at the US Open site.

Another Australian female tennis player, Anastasia Rodionova lost her first round match to Alla Kudryavtseva 7-6(1), 7-5.

Tournament director Jim Curley told the official U.S. Open website: “After careful deliberation regarding Serena Williams, we decided to maintain the objective criteria in place to determine the women’s singles seeds.”

It is interesting to note that the world no. 1 and top seed, Caroline Wozniacki is fifth in the betting according to the odds at Paddy Power. Maria Sharapova is the second favourite behind Williams.

Serena Williams was out of tennis for a year after injury and illness forced her off the courts. She made her comeback at Wimbledon before going on to win the title at Toronto a few weeks ago.

Sharapova is in good form and won at Cincinnati while Wozniacki has just won the title at New Haven.

Kewell and Emerton are some of the biggest names in Australian football and to see them returning to Australia to play in the A-League is bound to give the competition a huge boost.

All going well we will see just how big this is when the two Socceroo stars face off in the opening round.

There is much debate over who will provide better value to their respective clubs. Kewell of course will attract much interest as he is perhaps the biggest name in Australian football although many would disagree.

Emerton joins Sydney FC after cutting short his English Premier League career when he still had a year to run on his Blackburn Rovers contract. Despite not having as much of the spotlight over the years he is a top performer and will boost interest in the Harbour City.

However the season goes you will have to say the return of Kewell and Emerton will give the A-League a much needed boost.

I have to say I am excited to see Kewell and Emerton to make the move to the A-League. I have always love to follow the career of Kewell and remember when I first saw him play in the heart-breaking loss to Iran in 1997. As a Liverpool fan I was so excited when he signed for the Reds however we all know what happened there.

Football fans would love to read your views, you can leave your comments below.