Getting her game in gear at a Grand Slam tournament, as usual, Sloane Stephens moved into the French Open’s fourth round for the third consecutive time.
Now comes the 15th-seeded American’s toughest test yet this year at Roland Garros, a matchup against No. 4 Simona Halep of Romania. Neither has ever made it to the quarter-finals in Paris.
“Obviously, as the tournament goes on, the competition gets tougher,” Stephens said.
Photo: EPA
She eliminated No. 22 Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-3, 6-4 yesterday, while Halep beat 55th-ranked Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain 6-3, 6-0 as the temperature approached 20oC on the sunniest afternoon of Week 1 at the clay-court major after several days of overcast skies and occasional rain.
At No. 4, Halep is the highest-seeded woman left at Roland Garros, because of early losses by No. 1 Serena Williams, No. 2 Li Na and No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska.
“That’s a surprise for everyone,” said Halep, the runner-up on clay at Madrid three weeks ago. “Is not easy to be the [top] seeded now, during the tournament, but I try just to keep ... the pressure [away].”
In other action yesterday, 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova came back to beat an error-prone fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova 6-7 (3/7), 6-1, 9-7, while the 2008 title winner at Roland Garros, Ana Ivanovic, bowed out with a 6-3, 6-3 loss to 23rd-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
The 27th-seeded Kuznetsova, who also won the 2004 US Open, broke at love in the final game when a 13-stroke exchange was capped by a missed forehand by Kvitova, her 65th unforced error on a day the 2011 Wimbledon champion repeatedly sought treatment from a trainer and had a bandage on her upper right leg. Kuznetsova, meanwhile, made only 20 unforced errors in the three-hour, 13-minute match and faces Safarova next.
Eight-time men’s champion Rafael Nadal faced Leonardo Mayer at Court Philippe Chatrier after Kuznetsova’s victory. The Nadal-Mayer winner is to face 83rd-ranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, who got past Jack Sock of the US 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
The man Nadal beat in last year’s final, fifth-seeded David Ferrer, got to the fourth round by defeating No. 32 Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-2, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
Ferrer improved to 7-0 against Seppi, winning all 15 sets they have played. Ferrer, who has lost a total of 26 games through three matches this year in Paris, will face No. 19 Kevin Anderson of South Africa for a place in the quarter-finals.
Anderson advanced when Ivo Karlovic retired after one set yesterday because of a bad back.
Halep, a Romanian, was the girls’ champion at Roland Garros in 2008, but she had never been past the second round of the French Open’s main draw until now.
“I hope,” she said with a smile, “[it won’t] be the first and the last.”
She played quite cleanly against Torro-Flor, making only 11 unforced errors and saving all eight break points she faced. Halep converted five of 14 break points she earned.
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