A day after upsetting #15 Eugenie Bouchard in the first round Bethanie Mattek-Sands faced Monica Niculescu as the higher seeded player in the second round but couldn’t deliver another top performance. Mattek-Sands struggled to get her serve in with a 51% first serve %. Of those that did get in on the first serve she won less than half (47%) and overall won just 39% of points on her serve. So it was no surprise that she was broke 10 times in 13 service games including on all five of her service games in the third set. She fought back hard on Niculescu’s serve breaking her seven times in 12 service games. Niculescu was also underwater winning just 45% of points on her serve. In the end the woes on her own serve were too much to overcome and Mattek-Sands lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
The other American in action was Venus Williams who was making an upset bid against #3 Petra Kvitova. After dropping set one 6-2 Williams fought back with a great 6-2 win in set two. The 3rd set was back and forth with Williams up a break at 4-1 before Kvitova broke her twice in a row making it 5-4 and giving her a chance to serve for the match. Williams was able to break Kvitova with the pressure on and the set went to a tiebreaker. The extremely tight tiebreaker went 16 points before Kvitova pulled off the 9-7 win to avoid the Williams upset bid. Both players struggled with their serve with each being broken six times on 14 service games. Kvitova won six more points, 114 to 108 as this one was extremely close. While it’s a disappointment that Williams couldn’t get the win here it is a good sign that she played toe-to-toe with one of the ten best in the world again. Hopefully this is a sign of how the rest of the year will be playing out.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands has become one of my favorite US players to watch over the last year. Her unique style is enjoyable and she has a lot of toughness. It seems like when she gets drawn against the top players she’s ready to battle them and despite adversity in most of those matchups she’ll battle back and not go down without throwing a few punches.
We saw that toughness on Tuesday when Mattek-Sands took on Eugenie Bouchard. Down a break late in set one with Bouchard serving for the set at 4-5 Mattek-Sands broke back and then after holding serve to 6-5 she broke Bouchard again to snatch the first set 7-5. She then continue the strong play in set two as she blazed to a 7-5, 6-1 win over the young Canadian. Mattek-Sands was great on her first serve winning 74% of the points and attacked Bouchard’s second serve. Bouchard was serving just 42% on her first serve so there were numerous opportunities as Mattek-Sands won 64% of Bouchard’s second serve points. Mattek-Sands now faces Monica Niculescu in round two and is the higher seeded player.
On Monday in Doha Sloane Stephens took to the court a heavy favorite over Petra Cetkovska, the 133rd ranked player in the world. The first set was a tight affair, some major struggles followed by a last ditch comeback. Nothing new for Sloane, and Stephens lost 7-5. The bottom fell out though in set two as she dropped it 6-1. Now the question will be asked: was this Sloane’s wrist just not healthy enough yet and her hoping she could play well and it just not happening, or is this just another disappointment of a young Stephens overlooking an opponent, not showing up focused, and losing it mentally when the going got tough?
Sloane does have a wrist injury, that happened back in Australia at the beginning of the year and no one is denying that. She even used it as an excuse to not play in the Fed Cup for the US this weekend. But then why was she in the draw at Doha? According to Sports Illustrated, that fact that Stephens was in the draw was a surprise to American Fed Cup captain Mary Jo Hernandez who was surprised it when told about it by a reporter (View that here). Maybe she stayed in the draw just to see what would happen in it, there’s certainly no penalty for going and trying, and the wrist still is really bothering her. She did have 70 points to try and defend and as a seeded player had a favorable draw.
But it would seem there is more at play here and her continued poor attitude at times on the court continues to weigh on peoples’ minds. Sloane is still just 20 years old, but she’ll be 21 in a month and the tennis world isn’t like the real world. She can’t bloom in her 30’s like the average 20-something who doesn’t get it together in their younger years. If she wants to be a top player in the world that development has to come soon. She’s been a star at the Grand Slams when all the attention is on with five straight appearances in the round of 16. Yet in lesser tournaments last year she often got knocked out early and went 24-19 (compared to 15-4 at Grand Slams). Becoming a real professional that shows up seriously each week and plays consistently is desperately needed for her.
This week is the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Qatar. This event is part of the Premier 5 on the WTA tour and the winner will get 900 ranking points.
Sloane Stephens is the only American in the field who is seeded (#14). The other Americans are Venus Williams (same half as Stephens), Varvara Lepchenko (other half of the draw) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (same quarter as Lepchenko).
The Draws
This is the route for each American to the final if the higher seeds hold out. Green means the American on the left would be the higher ranked player, red means they would be lower ranked. Bold on an athlete indicates that match has been completed. Click to expand.
