Sloane Stephens plonks Eugenie Bouchard to enter semis – Citi Open 2012
Third seed Sloane Stephens pounced over the Canadian wildcard recipient, Eugenie Bouchard, in straight sets at the Citi Open 2012 on Thursday. She summed up a 6-4, 6-4 success against her fellow teenager to cruise into the final four at this WTA (Women’s
Tennis Association) International-level tournament taking place from 28th July to 5th August in Washington D.C.
The local seed displayed top class performance to outrun Bouchard in their first duel against each other. After pocketing the match in one hour and 17 minutes, Stephens not only took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against the world number 294 but
also progressed into the final four at this outdoor hard court tournament.
Stephens entered the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center with self-assurance. She drew the first blood in the opening game and took the initial lead. Despite squandering her edge in the very next game, the American stayed calm and swiped her remaining
serves. Stephens got the breakthrough in the fifth game and eventually sealed the opener by winning six games to four.
Ranked 50th in the WTA Premier Rankings, Stephens kept momentum rolling in the following set. She easily grabbed her entire serves without facing any breakpoint. The American cashed in the lone break chance in the seventh game and clicked the
set with a 6-4 win.
All in all, the Florida-born Stephens manifested a better first serve share of 56 per cent as opposed to her rival’s 53 per cent and tremendously availed 26 out of 34 points on it. She hammered two aces and sealed the match with 66 points in contrast with
her rival’s 54.
Next up for Stephens is the Slovakian contender, Magdalena Rybarikova, who tumbled her qualifying compatriot, Jana Cepelova, in straight sets to set up this meeting. Rybarikova was broken twice but capitalised on five out of seven break chances to record
a 6-2, 6-4 score line.
The top seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova from Russia, will join Stephens in the last four. The Russian seed took almost one and a half hour to overpower Taiwan’s Kai-Chen Chang in straight sets to progress at this hard court event.
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