But right from the start the quick footed Italian Schiavone executed a brilliant plan of net-rushing to neutralize Stosur’s power baseline game. Before the tournament, the Italian was perhaps more known for her distinctive two-syllable grunt during point play.

The former doubles specialist Stosur stayed even early in the match to reach 4 all after holding serve at love on several occasions. However Schiavone broke serve to reach 5-4 behind deep backhand volleys and smart baseline play.

After falling behind 0-30 in her next service game, the Italian slammed a 104 miles per hour ace out wide, Then on setpoint number two, Stosur netted a backhand down the line. Stosur turned up the heat in set two with powerful groundstrokes and fast serves to jump out to a 4-1 lead. But after more successful netplays from the Italian, the set was leveled at 5 all. Schiavone would close out the tiebreaker then fall onto the clay in a joyous celebration after matchpoint.

Schiavone’s title win marked her as the first female Italian grand slam winner.

In the men’s final Sunday, the world number two Rafael Nadal of Spain meets Robin Soderling of Sweden.

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