Stephens shocked by unseeded Vekic in straight sets
US Open champion Sloane Stephens was the first big casualty of the Championships as unseeded Donna Vekic swept her aside in straight sets. In a career-best win for the 55th-ranked Croatian, she broke the American six times to speed to victory in 70 minutes, 6-1, 6-3.
Vekic, 21, took the first set easily but world No4 Stephens came back fighting at the beginning of the second and looked like she would launch a comeback, immediately going a break and two games up.
But Vekic responded superbly, breaking Stephens twice and winning three games in a row to gain the advantage once again, eventually forcing her opponent to serve to stay in the match at 3-5 down. The final game went to six deuces, with Vekic converting match point at the fourth time of asking.
Afterwards, Stephens said she felt her decision to sit out the warmup grass-court tournaments had been “best for herself ” and her disappointing performance was simply down to having a bad day. “It was frustrating. I wasn’t making the shots I wanted to make, wasn’t being as consistent as I wanted to,” she said. “Sometimes it happens, there’s nothing more, nothing less to it. You kind of just got to roll over and move on, get ready for the hard-court season.”
Meanwhile, ninth seed Venus Williams was given a big scare by Johanna Larsson of Sweden. She had to fight from a set down to avoid a second first-round exit in a row, following her defeat at the French Open in May.
The 38-year-old lost the first-set tie-break to the world No58, who came out swinging to graft her way to the lead. However, the five-time champion made light work of an increasingly frustrated Larsson in the second and third set, enjoying a 10-game winning streak to churn out a 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory.
Competing in her 79th grand slam singles event, Williams said she recovered after the first set by playing better on the shots that mattered. “I haven’t played her before, she played well,” she said of Larsson. “There were moments where I could have played better, and was just playing better in those moments in the last two sets.”
Williams now faces unseeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru in the second round tomorrow, while Vekic will meet Rebecca Peterson, the world No 78.
Elsewhere, second seed Caroline Wozniacki came off the back of her Eastbourne win to breeze past Varvara Lepchenko 6-0, 6-3, and former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka set up a second-round meeting with seventh seed Karolina Pliskova after beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6, 6-3.