Stephens exits early; Williams sisters win
Federer, Wawrinka, Monfils among men winning their openers.
Sloane Stephens’ LONDON —
Grand Slam career has fallen into an all-or-nothing pattern: She alternates runs to the final with first-round losses.
At Wimbledon on Monday, it was time for another early exit.
Stephens was the U.S. Open champion last season and the French Open runner-up last month, but otherwise, she can’t seem to win a match at the majors. The No. 4-seeded American bowed out at the All England Club in the first round for the second straight year, lasting a mere 71 minutes in the tournament before her 6-1, 6-3 loss to 55th-ranked Donna Vekic of Croatia was over.
“Not too much you can do,” said Stephens, her arms crossed and face a blank slate, revealing no emotion. “I’m not going to, like, go cry a bit, bang my racket.”
Might have made her forget how she played, though. Vekic, who entered with a 0-5 record against opponents ranked in the top five, barely needed to produce much in the way of the spectacular. She generated only 12 winners
among 64 points she won.
The other 52 were split evenly between forced and unforced errors by Stephens, who is capable of playing more cleanly and letting superior defense hurt opponents. Instead, her uneven strokes allowed Vekic to overcome nine double-faults.
In 2017, Stephens arrived at Wimbledon to begin a comeback after sitting out about 11 months because of an injured right foot that required surgery. She quickly began playing the best tennis of her life, posting a 15-2 record to climb from 957th in the rankings and collect her first Grand Slam title in New York. Right after that triumph, though, Stephens went through a rough patch, losing eight matches in a row, including a first-round loss at the Australian Open.
Her coach, Kamau Murray, spoke last month about how Stephens was able to shrug off that trouble without letting it push her off course, crediting Stephens with knowing what matters and what doesn’t, and not allowing “outside pressure to sort of ... make her panic.” Asked about her attitude in the face of days such as Monday, Stephens said she doesn’t dwell on the bad moments. “There’s no one that is going to win every single week.” In other matches Monday: Women: Serena Williams needed six match points to finish a 7-5, 6-3 win over Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. Five-time champion Venus Williams advanced to the second round with a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-1 win over Johanna Larsson. Australian Open champ Caroline Wozniacki advanced with a 6-0, 6-3 win over American Varvara Lepchenko.
CoCo Vandeweghe took a fall in the opening set of her first-round match at Wimbledon and exited the tournament. The 16th-seeded American lost 6-7 (3), 6-3, 8-6 to 42nd-ranked Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
Former Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska saved six match points before beating Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the second round.
Katie Swan became the first British player in the second round at Wimbledon with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Irina-Camelia Begu. Last year’s semifinalist Magdalena Rybarikova become the first seeded player to exit Wimbledon. The 19th-seeded Slovakian went down 7-5, 6-3 to Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
Men: Eight-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer beat Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. Stan Wawrinka defeated sixth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-4 to claim just his second Grand Slam victory since last year’s Wimbledon. Gael Monfils is through to the second round after defeating fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-4.
Borna Coric became the highest seeded male to exit Wimbledon on Day 1 when he lost 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2 to Daniil Medvedev. Last year’s runner-up Marin Cilic easily advanced with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.