Stephens Off to Winning Start in Indian Wells
Sloane Stephens opened up her campaign at the BNP Paribas Masters in Indian Wells, California with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over South African Chanelle Scheepers on Wednesday. Stephens, who reached the quarterfinals at this event last year, had to rally from two games down in the second set to halt a three-match losing streak and advance in about one hour and 39 minutes.
In an extremely tight match, Stephens was able to notch two more break points than her opponent, and saved seven of her own, to advance into the second-round where she will take on the 13th-seeded Angelique Kerber.
Stephens was one of four Americans to advance on the tournament’s opening day.
Alison Riske cruised past Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 6-3 to push through into the second round; Irina Falconi took out another Croatian, Ajla Tomljanovic, 7-6(6), 6-4, and wild card Sachia Vickery edged Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, 7-6(6), 7-6(6).
In the earliest match of the day, Romanian Monica Niculescu ousted Serbian Aleksandra Krunic 6-2, 6-1 to advance and set up a matchup with world number one Serena Williams.
“I always wanted to play number one and Serena is an awesome player,” said Niculescu. “It’s going to be an awesome day playing against Serena. Hopefully I will step up and play good. I know when we were playing doubles, she was hitting hard and very good mentally. I’m going to try to play my game and I hope the crowd will be for me also. It’s a good opportunity for me.”
Serena is playing at Indian Wells for the first time since 2001. Her last match playing at this event was a win over Kim Clijsters in the 2001 final.
In another match that was played Wednesday afternoon, Great Britain’s Heather Watson moved past Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 to advance. She will take on the 29th-seeded Camila Giorgi in the second-round.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig defeated American Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 7-5 to advance and will play 12th seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro, who is playing some of the best tennis on the women’s tour thus far in 2015.
First-round action continues today from Indian Wells. Click here to follow the day’s matches.
