Samantha Stosur, via d.yimg.com

View full size photo »

It's safe to say that Samantha Stosur and Francesca Schiavone were pretty excited to see one another on the opposite side of the net for Sunday's final in Osaka.  The two brought a combined 1-15 record in finals into the match, with Stosur 0 for 5 in her previous WTA singles finals, and Schiavone only 1-10.

Since the rules of tennis mandate that somebody had to win, it was Stosur who broke through to win her first WTA title, defeating Schiavone 7-5, 6-1 in a match that got uglier as it went along.

With the title, Stosur gets the one International-level crown she needed to play the second-tier year end tournament in Bali, an event that is looking surprisingly interesting given its caliber.  She'll likely be playing doubles in Doha as well, so there's a lot of big things out there for Stosur left to accomplish the rest of this year