Stephens survives scare to reach quarters
MONTREAL• Sloane Stephens reached the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup Canadian Open women’ s tennis championships Thursday, but not before she survived a challenge from qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
Stephens was a 6-2, 7-5 winner, but she had a scare in the second set when Suarez Navarro rallied from a 1-5 deficit to pull even at 5-5.
“I thought I had a little bit of a lapse, but I was happy to get back and win the last two games,” said Stephens. “Obviously, when you play a sport, you’re playing against an opponent. She played a couple of good games, kind of threw me off. I was happy to get through in the end.
“I think she just raised her game a little bit. She started playing better. I mean, it was 5-1, yeah, but she held at 5-1. I got broken, whatever. She called her coach at 5-2. She played two really good games. It kind of just gets away from you.”
Stephens, who had a breakthrough when she won the U.S. Open last year, said she was prepared to deal with the lapse in her game.
“I don’t think it was a matter of, like, holy hell, it’s going to shit. Oh, sorry,” Stephens said.
Stephens’ quarter-final opponent will be unseeded Anastasja Sevastova of Latvia. She upset 10th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Meanwhile, Ashleigh Barty, the 15th seed from Australia, claimed her spot in the quarter-finals with a win over unseeded Alize Cornet of France. She’ll face Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands
Top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania outlasted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-6 (9), 4-6, 7-5 in a match which lasted three hours and eight minutes over two days.
Halep later ousted Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2 in an evening match.
No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki was upset by Aryna Sabalenka 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (4).