Sloane Stephens the defending champion of the Miami Open was sent home packing from this year’s Miami Open on Sunday after she got defeated by 6-3 and 6-2 at hands of German player Tatjana Maria.
Stephens, the 2017 champion of the US Open had no response to the Florida based player Maria, who chipped, sliced and lobbed.
This is the 2nd major loss for Stephens who earlier lost in the qualifying round of the Paribas Open in Indian Wells against Stefanie Vogele.
Maria, the world rank no. 62 celebrated her victory prematurely after she got her 3rd match point but was then called out. Still, she won the match on the next match point with her backhand shot.
Although Stephens easily managed to defeat Maria last year in Cincinnati, this year, she struggled quite a lot in Miami as she made 37 unforced errors to end her title defence prematurely.
Maria said, ‘I could not be happier as I am right now. I think I played at home as I live in Florida. It was a great help to me. My game is very special so I knew that I had a chance tonight. I had previously played against Sloane 2 times and I knew what I was going into.”
In other matches of women’s draw, the 2nd seeded player Simona Halep defeated Polona Hercog after a late comeback from being a set down. With this, she has cemented her place in the last 16 as she will now face Venus Williams.
Venus Williams managed to get into the 4th round of the tournament after defeating the 14th seeded Russian player Kasatkina by 6-3 and 6-1.
As for the 11th seed of the tournament, the Latvian player Anastasija Sevastova got a surprise defeat at hands of Yulia Putintseva by 6-2 and 6-3.
As for the semi-finalist of the Australian One, Danielle Collins, she got defeated by Chinese player Wang Yafan by 7-5 and 6-1.
Related Content
