Dubai: US Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia is targeting winning more Grand Slams as she sets about putting her recent disappointments behind her.
Stosur had a phenomenal 2011 that was highlighted by her defeat of Serena Williams for her first Grand Slam title at the US Open — the first Australian to win at Flushing Meadows since 1980 — as she finished in the top 10 for a second straight year.
She was a quarter-finalist in Dubai last year and it is here that she achieved her career-high No 4 on the WTA Rankings.
However, the Brisbane girl has had a dismal start to the 2012 season, reaching only the second round in her home event followed by a shock first-round loss to Sorena Cirstea at the Australian Open.
"I'd like to try and win the other Grand Slams and that's a good way of building on last year's success," Stosur said on the opening day of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open.
"Last year I wanted to do better in these kinds of events, like the premier ones that I did not do so well in during the previous season. I tried to find some improvement overall, but there is still some room for improvement in that as well. I think the way I can do that is try and work on things that I need to improve on during the tournament weeks and continue to work hard on my game and things will get better."
Stosur was in Doha last week, where she advanced to the final before caving in to Victoria Azarenka 2-6, 1-6 in Sunday's final. But the highlight for her was her revenge against Cirstea in their first round meeting in Qatar.
"I was happy with the way I served in Doha. For the past one or two months, I wasn't really using my serve as a weapon. I know what it is now and I did well with the serve, especially against Sorena," she said.
"That was my second Tour match having to play her straight off and I managed to turn things around there and I was pretty happy with the way I went about it. I went out and played aggressive, served well and went out after it."
