Two top-five seeds fall in the opening round
On consecutive points Monday night in the Citi Open, Sloane Stephens provided a glimpse of her tantalizing talent but also demonstrated why it might go unfulfilled.
Rifling a forehand bullet for a far-corner winner, the third-seeded Stephens drew gasps followed by raucous applause. On the next point, however, Stephens fired an easy overhead smash into the middle of the net.
At 19 years old and No. 50 in the world, Stephens is the highest-ranked teenager in the WTA and the top drawing card on the women’s side of the Citi Open this week at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park.
In the middle stages of her 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 victory over Sesil Karatantcheva, however, it appeared she might be ready to join two of the top five seeds who fell in Monday’s opening round.
In losing four straight games in the second set, the Floridian was out of step and looked ill-prepared to adapt to Karatantcheva’s change-of-pace offerings. But in the third set, Stephens took control with her powerful serve, quickness on the baseline and her most undeniable weapon — a booming forehand that she uses to transform baseline rallies into sudden winners that can deflate helpless opponents.
“Just a matter of a couple of loose points and some weird calls and some things that happened,” Stephens said. “I was a little more consistent in the end, and I think that’s the thing that carried me through.”
Shortly after Karatantcheva double-faulted to start the third set, Stephens’ forehand helped her earn a service break that set the tone for the rest of the match. In the next game, Stephens dug deep, rescuing two break points and finally emerging on the 20th point to take a 2-0 lead. Breaking Karatantcheva in the next game signaled the end for the 22-year-old from Kazakhstan, who is ranked 106th.
Stephens’ composure was striking. Even when things went bad in the second set, she appeared upbeat and unfazed by bad luck.
Citi Open organizers are no doubt thrilled that Stephens didn’t go the way of No. 2 Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, who was bounced Monday afternoon by unseeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted just 64 minutes.
Another opening-round victim was No. 5 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic, who fell to unseeded Edina Gallovits-Hall 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, who drew a nice crowd to a grandstand court after her stellar work last week as a replacement player for the Washington Kastles of World TeamTennis.
The upsets helped clear Stephens’ half of the draw as No. 8 Olga Govortsova is the only seeded player left. Stephens advanced to a round of 16 match with Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal.
Stephens was the star of the night as her match might have drawn more fans than the stadium court men’s match between American Brian Baker and France’s Florent Serra.
“I think the fans really love that there’s women’s tennis now,” Stephens said. “Some people came up to me and were like, ‘I only came to this tournament because you were the only one playing.’ I said, ‘Keep coming.’?”
