Stephens offers hint of winning form
MONTREAL — Sloane Stephens says she isn’t overly excited about the hard court tennis season even if it leads to the tournament that brought her biggest victory — the U.S. Open.
The 25-year-old’s career took off last September when, not long after returning from a foot injury, she won her first grand slam title with a victory over fellow American Madison Keys in New York.
Hard court tennis resumed in earnest last week in Washington, D.C., where Stephens lost in the third round to Andrea Petkovic. She’ll go at least one round farther this week at the Rogers Cup after beating veteran Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-2, 7-5 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals.
But Stephens said the lead-up to the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 27, is not different this time.
“I think now, just kind of taking it all in stride, trying to play my best, compete, get a lot of matches under my belt,” she said. “I have a few goals that I still want to reach.
“I think, U.S. Open or not, if I do really great, if I do really bad, it really doesn’t matter.”
Stephens showed flashes of superior talent in recent years, but seemed to be locked in into the 20s in world rankings until a year ago. Now she sits third in the world, with a win on hard courts in Miami in March and an appearance in the French Open final, where she lost to topranked Simona Halep.
She will be vying for a second trip to the Rogers Cup semifinals in a row.
Stephens looked to be cruising to victory with a 5-1 lead in the second set over Suarez Navarro, but the Spaniard, a former top-10 player, battled back to tie it 5-5. But Stephens broke serve for 6-5 and then scored four straight points to put the match away.
Stephens will next face Anastaija Sevastova who ousted 10thseeded Julian Goerges. Sevastova, a Latvian ranked 19th in the world, was a winner last month at a tournament in Bucharest.
Ashleigh Barty, the 15th seed from Australia, also advanced when she defeated French veteran Alize Cornet, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Rain-delayed second round matches were completed after rain stopped play on Wednesday evening.
Top-seeded Halep needed three hours and eight minutes to down Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-6 (9), 4-6, 7-5. Halep is 8-0 in her career against the Russian.
Johanna Konta completed her second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, while Venus Williams beat Sorana Cirstea, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Konta was slated to play defending champion Elina Svitolina on Thursday night, while Halep was to face Williams.