Watching Stosur Across The Globe

Eastbourne seems to bring the best out of Sam Stosur when she plays Nadia Petrova. 
Today Petrova, the world no. 13, and the Aegon International's eighth seed, was upset 6-2, 6-3 on Court Two in the first round by Australia's Stosur, currently ranked just one place below at world no.14, but therefore unseeded. 
Their career head-to-head record now stands at 6-4 in Petrova's favour, and the only match where Stosur conceded as few as five games against her Russian rival took place - yes, you've guessed it - in the first round at Eastbourne 2011 (6-1, 6-4).
True, Petrova beat Stosur in the semi-finals of Eastbourne 2008, but that was in the days when Stosur was just beginning to emerge as a singles contender, following her huge success in the doubles game.  
I watched Stosur beat Petrova on Court One in their first round encounter at Eastbourne 2011 - the Aussie's first victory over the Russian in five attempts. But it was their next meeting that would become probably the most significant of all their matches so far - certainly in terms of Sam Stosur's career.
Having had the opportunity to speak with her briefly during Eastbourne 2011, and tell her that my Aussie relatives in Brisbane were very proud of her as a fellow Queenslander, I was visiting them - as well as Sydney and Melbourne - a few months later, as the US Open began.
Watching the Australian TV commentators talking up her chances, I wondered how realistic they were being, and of course thought of the similar situation in the UK regarding Andy Murray. Sam's talent and potential is extraordinary, but the chances of her performing close enough to her best throughout the whole tournament didn't look good, even though her form had been reasonable during the North American hardcourt tournaments after Wimbledon 2011.
When it came to her third round match against Nadia Petrova, the commentators pointed out Sam's easy win against her at Eastbourne, and sounded confident of victory, even as she struggled in the second set, having taken the first. 
However, when I turned the TV off in my Melbourne hotel room, and headed for the airport, Nadia was leading 3-1 in the final set. It was over 24 hours before I found the result on the internet during a stopover in Singapore. I was somewhat surprised to read that Sam had won, and later discovered it was the longest women's match in US Open history since the introduction of the tie-break. She went on to have another epic win against Maria Kirilenko, having to go to a third set after Maria won the longest tie-break in women's Grand Slam history, 17-15. 
Given that she'd lost to Serena Williams a few weeks earlier in Toronto - and the fact that she'd underperformed in her only previous Grand Slam final (the 2010 French Open, against Schiavone), the chances of her playing the match of her life in the 2011 US Open final to beat an in-form Serena - which it seemed she might well need to do - looked remote. But that, of course, is exactly what happened.
Watching back in Eastbourne, it was close to midnight when she wrapped up the 6-2, 6-3 stunner; it was early evening in New York; and as she pointed out in the on-court interview, breakfast time in Queensland. My uncle, who has always been positive about "our darling Sam", including during some disappointing losses in the last few years, sent an email with the subject line, "We love you, Sam Stosur!"