Stephens stunned by qualifier at Indian Wells

Published by Tennismash

Sloane Stephens cuts a dejected figure during her second-round loss to world No.109 Stefanie Voegele at Indian Wells (Getty Images)
Sloane Stephens collects just three games in a disastrous opening-round loss to qualifier Stefanie Voegele, while major champs Stan Wawrinka, Garbine Muguruza and Jelena Ostapenko advance.

Sloane Stephens went down in her opening round match at Indian Wells Masters on Friday, surrendering to Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele.

Voegele beat the No.4 seed 6-3 6-0 in just 68 minutes, winning eight straight games to close out victory.

There were better results on Friday for fellow Grand Slam champions Stan Wawrinka, Garbine Muguruza and Jelena Ostapenko who all notched opening-round victories.

Joining them on the winner’s list was former world No.4 Johanna Konta, 12th seed Ash Barty and qualifiers Radu Albot, Alexei Popyrin, Alex Bolt and Filip Krajinovic.

FEATURE: depth of women’s game reflected in rankings

Incredible, the world No.109 Voegele owns a 5-1 winning record against the 2017 US Open champion Stephens, including four straight victories dating back to October 2013.

As Voegele moves onto a third-round meeting with either Dominika Cibulkova or Bianca Andreescu, Stephens was left to ruminate on what went wrong.

“I think this week is just a busy week, a lot of stuff happening. Obviously being in the US again, there is a lot more required and asked of you. So I think it’s a little bit tough,” she told WTA Insider.

“This week especially was a little bit tougher for me than normal. Practice wasn’t too bad, but I think just sometimes you get a little bit overwhelmed.

“I’m obviously going through a transition (between coaches) right now, so things are different than they normally have been. So I’m just trying to work through that.”

Muguruza and Ostapenko were at their dominant best, routing Lauren Davis and Zhang Shuai respectively to reach the third round.

Muguruza’s 6-1 6-3 victory over Davis means she will meet either Serena Williams or Victoria Azarenka in arguably the pick of the matches in the last 32.

Ostapenko, who has struggled for form in 2019 since a wrist injury impacted her off-season, will line up against Marketa Vondrousova, who swatted aside floundering 14th seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2 6-1.

Konta was similarly dominant in a 6-0 6-2 demolition of 27th seed Hsieh Su-Wei; she could next face Kiki Bertens, should the seventh seed get past Magda Linette.

Meanwhile, Wawrinka required three sets to subdue in-form Brit Dan Evans, while former world No.4 Tomas Berdych was shown the door by Feliciano Lopez.

Wawrinka beat Evans 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3 in a high-quality affair, a win sending the Swiss through to a second-round meeting with No.29 seed Marton Fucsovics.

Fucsovics has won 10 of his 16 matches to open the 2019 season.

Berdych was enjoying a similarly strong start to the year, winning 12 of his 17 matches entering Indian Wells. Yet Spanish veteran Lopez got on top of him in two tiebreaks, and progresses to a second-round showdown with 12th seed Karen Khachanov.

It was a good day for Australia, with the nation’s players going four-from-four on Friday.

Bolt and Popyrin scored their first Masters-level main-draw victories while Barty and Daria Gavrilova both enjoyed straight sets victories to reach the last 32.

Share this: 
  • Most popular articles

15 September 2016

The 10 most influential players in the history of tennis

The greatest champions, goes the old adage, are those who leave their sport better than th... More

14 August 2017

Sharapova quotes Serena: “I will never lose to that li...

Maria Sharapova has opened up in her memoir Unstoppable, revealing her take on how Serena ... More

24 May 2016

Preparing your body for clay court tennis

With all eyes on the red clay of Roland Garros, there's plenty that club players can do to... More

16 February 2017

Men’s and women’s tennis: as different as believ...

In the first part of our series analysing the similarities and differences between men's ... More