Sloane rallies to stun Sharapova
Print Edition
Maria Sharapova’s return to WTA tournament play after more than a month away was short-lived as the Russian suffered an upset loss to American Sloane Stephens, going out 6-2, 6-7 (5), 3-6 in the second round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
In a match that lasted 2 hours, 22 minutes, Stephens overcame double faults on two match points to pick up her first victory over Sharapova in four meetings.
“I started the match off pretty well, but when you put yourself in a really good position, you can’t let it go,” Sharapova said. “That’s what I did tonight. I didn’t continue what I was doing well for the first set and a half, and that hurt me.”
Sharapova, the 2011 champion and a 2010 finalist, showed no traces of the hip injury that had kept her sidelined since a second-round loss at Wimbledon but paid the price for trying to end points too quickly.
Jimmy Connors, who won the tournament 41 years ago, watched from the stands in his first match as Sharapova’s coach. She hired Connors, the 1972 champion and a 1986 finalist, in mid-July.
While Sharapova was struggling with her game, Swiss Roger Federer made a smoother comeback after dealing with back pain in recent weeks.
The five-time champion who is defending the title and needs as many matches as possible before the August 26 start of the US Open, won his seventh career match against German friend Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6 (7)
Fourteenth-seeded Jelena Jankovic, the 2009 champion and 2011 runner-up, advanced to the second round with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-2 win over Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki.
Earlier, second-ranked Victoria Azarenka held off an upset bid by qualifier Vania King to pull out a 6-1, 7-6 (6) win and advance to the third round. She was down 0-3 in the second set but forced the tiebreaker.
Varvara Lepchenko advanced with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win over Flavia Pennetta, and Jamie Hampton needed three sets to overcome Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Alize Cornet rallied past Ana Ivanovic 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4.
No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki easily advanced with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Peng Shuai.
John Isner defeated Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4, and Grigor Dimitrov beat Brian Baker 6-3, 6-2. Third-seeded David Ferrer edged 102nd-ranked American Ryan Harrison 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
