Top seed Simona Halep has made a winning start to her North American hard-court season with a 7-6(3), 6-0, win over Sloane Stephens at the Citi Open in Washington.
Engaged in a battle of the wild card entrants, Halep endured a stern test during the opening set as she struggled to generate rhythm in her game. The Romanian lost a 3-1 lead at the start of the match and then failed to convert five break points within a single game at four-all, before battling through the tiebreaker.
“It was not easy in the first set because I didn’t have any rhythm and she had some good strokes.” Halep reflected during an interview with The Tennis Channel.
Avoiding the scare, Halep benefited heavily in the match from her opponent’s unforced error count. Stephens, who recently returned to the tour after a year-long absence due to a foot injury, hit 48 unforced errors in the match. That tally equated to 62% of the total points won by Halep. Despite the lacklustre performance from the American, Halep isn’t taking her win for granted.
“I’m happy that I could win today. It wasn’t an easy match against Sloane Stephens, who is always tough to play.” She said.
Halep, who will play Colombia’s Mariana Duque in round two, is hoping for a confidence boost ahead of her title defence at the Rogers Cup. The 25-year-old decided to play Washington less than two weeks ago.
“I wanted to start a little bit earlier than last year.” She explained. “To have some matches and feel the rhythm because it is not easy to go straight to Toronto without matches.”
Makarova through
Seventh seed Ekaterina Makarova battled back from 2-4 down to see off world No.156 Jamie Loeb 7-6(4), 6-3. The Wimbledon doubles champion won 63% of her service points and converted four out of six break point opportunities. This week Makarova is bidding to win her maiden singles title in North America.
Awaiting the Russian in the last 16 will be Olympic champion Monica Puig. The Puerto Rican world No.67 dropped her serve three times, but managed to prevail in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) over Louisa Chirico.
Finally, Patricia Maria Tig survived a roller coaster encounter against Great Britain’s Heather Watson. Tig trailed the opening set 2-5, before snatching the tiebreaker. Then is the following set, she failed to maintain a 5-2 lead in her own advantage to revive Watson’s match hopes. Despite the blip, she managed to seal the match 7-6(4), 7-6(3), after more than two hours of play.
