Sloane Stephens Defeated At French Open
The last American left on either the men’s or women’s side of the French Open is no longer, as Sloane Stephens fell to Simona Halep in the fourth round at Roland Garros on Monday.
The fourth-seeded Romanian cruised to the 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 15th seeded Stephens, who was the last American left in France after John Isner lost on Sunday. Stephens struggled with her serve all match, committing 35 unforced errors and having her serve broken six out of nine times.
While Stephens’ serve struggled, Halep converted 58 percent of her first serves into points, allowing her to dictate play in the second set and advance. The match was even at 4-4 in the first set before Halep, the highest-remaining seed left in the field, seized control.
Halep will now meet the winner of Lucie Safarova and Svetlana Kuznetsova who play later today.
Also advancing on Monday were Sara Errani and Andrea Petkovic. The Italian Errani knocked off sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic 7-6(5), 6-2 to move into the quarterfinals. She will meet Petkovic, who survived a three-set match with unseeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.
Bertens was a relatively unknown player coming into the tournament, which allowed her to sneak up on her opponents thus far.
“It was super tough, because I didn’t know her at all. I just stalked her on YouTube yesterday the whole day, and I was already impressed yesterday,” Petkovic said after the match. “I think she’s going to be a force on the WTA when she gets fitter and recovers from her injuries that she’s had.”
