Wozniacki Out, Stephens Advances at Roland Garros

A few hours after second-seeded Li Na was upset by Kristina Mladenovic in the first-round at Roland Garros, thirteenth seeded Caroline Wozniacki was bounced by Yanina Wickmayer 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

It is the earliest exit at the French Open for the former world number one since her debut in 2007, and comes on the heels of a tough set of days for the Denmark native. The match was back and forth early on as neither player was able to capitalize on their serve, with each breaking the other three times to force a tiebreaker in the first set.

Wickmayer than gained control of the tiebreaker and closed out the opening set 7-5.  The second proved to be different, as Wozniacki found her serve and did not allow Wickmayer a single break point opportunity, closing the second set out 6-4 to force a deciding third set.

The final set was all Wickmayer as she converted three of four break points to counter Wozniacki’s serve to pull away and clinch the match and a spot in the third round. The Dane only smashed six winners which were not enough to overcome her unforced errors.

“Obviously, you’re not prepared to something like this. It came as a bit of a shock,” Wozniacki told ESPN. “I tried to prepare the best that I could. I really tried to focus on my match and what I had to do out there. It doesn’t make it easier that I haven’t been able to play really that many matches because I’ve been injured, so, I felt a little bit rusty out there.”

Wickmayer now moves on to Silvia Soler-Espinosa for a spot in the third round.

American and 15th-seeded Sloane Stephens won her second round bout, taking down China’s Peng Shuai in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 to improve her career record at the French Open to 7-3. She will now move on to play Ana Ivanovic, who cruised past Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-3.

Here are other notable results from Day 3 at Roland Garros:

No. 4 Simona Halep beats Alisa Kleybanova   6-0, 6-2

No. 21 Kirsten Flipkens beat Danka Kovinic    7-6, 6-2

No. 22 Ekaterina Majarova beat Shelby Rogers   6-2, 6-3

No. 24 Anastasia Pvlyuchenkova beat Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 0-6, 6-2

No. 26 Sorana Cirstea beat Aleksandra Wozniak 6-7, 7-5, 6-2

No. 27 Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Sofia Shapatava 6-3, 6-1

Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor beat No. 30 Klara Koukalova 7-6, 6-2

No. 10 Dinah Pfizenmaier beat Estrella Cabeza Candela 4-6, 6-3, 6-3