Stephens Upset While Fish Advances at Citi Open
World number 88 Olga Puchkova scored a major upset in opening round action of the 2013 Citi Open in Washington, D.C., defeating the number two seeded Sloane Stephens 7-5, 6-3 in straight sets. Stephens was down 3-0 immediately, but held serve in dominating fashion then broke Puchkova, but inconsistency struck again for Stephens as Puchkova continued to look the more assured in the second set, taking full advantage of her opponent’s troubles to open up a 3-1 lead. Stephens did battle back gamely, but Puchkova sealed the win after in 90 minutes. Puchkova will next meet Paula Ormaechea, who defeated wild card entry Beatrice Capra, 6-1, 6-1.
"I just didn’t play that well and wasn’t feeling the ball great," Stephens said. "I would say that I’m a pretty consistent player—I don’t really hit balls all over the place, that’s not really how I play—but today there were some that I really couldn’t believe it went that far out."
It was Stephens’ first match since her quarterfinals loss at Wimbledon to eventual winner Marion Bartoli of France.
On the men’s side of the draw, American Mardy Fish rebounded from an early exit at last week’s BB&T Open in Atlanta and lost the first set before eventually defeating qualifier Matthew Ebden 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. Fish has played only four matches to date in 2013, coming off a layoff due to heart issues. Fish advances to face the number 12 seed, Julien Benneteau of France.
”It feels real good," said Fish. "I’ve played well in practice, put in a lot of hours in the past, you know, I’d be remiss not to say months. But it’s been months. Yeah, it’s satisfying."
American James Blake dropped his opening round match to Marinko Matosevic 6-2, 7-6(6), while Blake’s fellow countryman Steve Johnson was a 6-7(3), 3-6 loser to 2011 Citi Open winner Radek Stepanek.
