Sloane finally shrugs aside Melbourne jinx

FORMER US Open champion Sloane Stephens had to “get it together” before advancing to the second round yesterday.

Stephens, 25, has endured a horror run at Melbourne Park since reaching the semi-final in 2013. She exited in the first round in 2015, ’16 and ’18, and missed ’17 with a foot injury.

There were also questions about the 2017 US Open winner’s form coming into the event after poor performances this month at warm-ups in Brisbane and Sydney.

But Stephens looked comfortable in seeing off 93rd ranked fellow American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-2.

“It’s been a tough couple of years here, but I do love this tournament,” Stephens said.

“I had a good result here once before, so I think I’m going to try to do it again.”

Stephens initially stumbled to go down a service break and admitted her past failures sprang to mind. “I was like ‘here we go again, get it together’,” she said.

The world number five immediately broke back to take the first set after 32 minutes.

She was in control of the second set from the offset, serving strongly and hitting accurate returns to run Townsend around in the heat.