Samantha Stosur has placed the champagne on ice after denying Daria Gavrilova in an epic all-Australian final in Strasbourg to emerge once more as a serious French Open title force.
Stosur not only retained the Australian No.1 ranking for a record 451st consecutive week and secured a ninth career title with her winner-takes-all 5-7 6-4 6-3 comeback victory over Gavrilova on Saturday.
The 33-year-old former Roland Garros runner-up and four-time semi-finalist also rocketed up the betting market as fans flocked to back the veteran to finally break through in Paris after a series of heartbreaking near misses in the City of Love and Light.
Chuffed to have retained her crown as Australia's queen of the court for at least another fortnight, Stosur said it was vital to retain focus ahead of her Open opener on Monday against Slovakian Kristina Kucova.
Stosur and Gavrilova, who also launches her Roland Garros campaign on Monday, caught the 8.20pm train together straight out of Strasbourg to Paris on Saturday night.
"It's hard because you really want to enjoy these moments and celebrate - and we'll certainly have a nice train trip - but we'll have to maybe save going out for dinner until maybe next week," Stosur said after being presented with a super-sized five-litre bottle of bubbly for her second wildcard success in Strasbourg in three years.
"Maybe at the end of Roland Garros. It's a very big bottle. It may not be so good for Monday if we all drink that big bottle," she said.
"Obviously it's a very quick turnaround. 'Dasha' plays Monday too so hopefully we haven't tired each other out too much.
"But I'll be just excited to play my first round there and get that tournament started."
Crowning a banner day for Australian tennis, Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua landed the doubles title on Saturday with a 6-4 6-2 victory over top seeds Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan.
While Gavrilova can console herself with a further rise to a new career-high No.24 in the world, Stosur will return to the cusp of the top 20 after also atoning for a three-set loss to Alicia Molik in the last all-Australian WTA title decider in Sydney in 2005.
The former US Open champion expressed relief after holding her nerve to finally seeing off Gavrilova after two hours and 45 minutes of ebbing and flowing.
"Sometimes that's not an easy thing to do - serve it out - especially in a final," Stosur said.
"But I felt like I stayed really composed. I definitely was expecting a very tough match against Dasha. We know each other very well and we've practised a lot.
"She typically makes her opponents work very, very hard to make sure that they can beat her.
"I thought it could be very long and tiring and very physical. I just tried to hang in there.
"She was playing very well, especially at the start, and it was only the last few games in the third set that she started to make a few errors and I was able to capitalise on that."
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