With her first-round loss to Sorana Cirstea at the Australian Open, Samantha Stosur continues the trend of reigning women's Grand Slam champions who have failed to get out of the second round of the their next major. After winning the 2011 Australian Open, a hobbled Kim Clijsters lost in the second round of Roland Garros; French Open champion Li Na lost in the second round of Wimbledon; and Wimbledon titlist Petra Kvitova fell in the first round of the U.S. Open.
"We all saw what happened last year and now I've kind of gone through that same trend," Stosur told reporters. "I don't know why. Part of it is just that heightened expectation of wanting to do well, all that kind of thing. At least for the other girls, it was tournaments straight after. I struggled the couple weeks after the U.S. Open and then finished well at the Championships, had a month off, then trained for a month. I'm sure if we could all change the way we've responded straight after winning a Grand Slam, we would have."