Sloane Stephens’ first match since winning the US Open has ended in a crushing 6-2, 6-2, loss to China’s Wang Qiang at the Wuhan Open.
Seeded 14th in the draw, Stephens failed to find her range throughout the match against her inspired opponent. 25-year-old Wang, who is yet to win a WTA title, illustrated her potential with a clinical service performance. The world No.57 impressively won 86% of her first service points and hit a total of 24 winners.
“I didn’t play a great match, but my opponent played very well,” said Stephens. “Sometimes you have those days. So it’s just not a good day today.”
Describing her performance in Wuhan as a ‘tough day,’ Stephens praised her Chinese rival. Last week Qiang also crushed France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-0, 6-0, in Tokyo.
“She plays very flat. I think the courts here are very fast. That suits her game pretty well. I think that I just wasn’t able to, like, play my game as well. I wasn’t moving that great, just was a tough day for me.” The US Open champion explained.
Wang will next take on Romania’s Sorana Cirstea. Cirstea breezed past Chinese wildcard Wang Yafan 6-3, 6-3.
Keys goes out
Madison keys, who lost to Stephens in the US Open final, was another seed to fall at the first hurdle. Facing qualifier Varvara Lepchenko, she crashed out 6-2, 7-6(4). After a one-sided opening set, chances came and went for Keys in the second. After losing her early break, she then missed out on two set points for 6-4. Allowing Lepchenko to take the set into a tiebreaker and eventually clinch the match.
“I am really happy to get through the first round. It was a really tough opponent.” Said Lepchenko. “I knew it wouldn’t be as smooth as the first set so I had to keep on fighting and keep on staying tough because she started playing a bit better.”
During the match, Keys was seen struggling with her left wrist and received a medical timeout. Earlier this year the 22-year-old underwent a second operation on her wrist prior to the start of Wimbledon.
Keys said her wrist issues today weren’t serious. Mainly nerve discomfort as she hasn’t been able to strengthen the wrist post-surgery.
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) 25 September 2017
There were better fortunes for former Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska, who endured a marathon encounter against Magdaléna Rybáriková. The Pole was forced to come from behind in both sets to prevail 6-4, 7-5. At the start she went behind 2-4, before winning four straight games. Then she got broken at the start of the second set before coming through.
Radwanska is yet to win a title in 2017.
