In an all-American first-round battle, Sloane Stephens charged past Louisa Chirico 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Monday at the clay-court Credit One Charleston Open in Charleston, S.C.
Stephens fired three aces with just one double fault and broke Chirico’s serve five times in seven opportunities to avoid an early upset at a tournament she won in 2016.
Three seeded players lost their opening matches Monday. Julia Grabher of Austria upset No. 10 seed Shuai Zhang of China 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; Anna Kalinskaya of Russia beat No. 11 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 7-6 (6), 6-4; and Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic outlasted No. 14 seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Other winners included Romanian 15th seed Irina-Camelia Begu, Americans Madison Brengle and Sachia Vickery, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, France’s Alize Cornet, Canadian Katherine Sebov, Russian Anna Blinkova and Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko. Two matches remained on the schedule for Monday evening.
Copa Colsanitas
Francesca Jones of Great Britain, ranked No. 817 in the world, upset No. 3 seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain 7-6 (3), 6-1 in the first round on clay in Bogota, Colombia.
Jones had a 6-1 edge in aces to overcome 14 double faults and saved 7 of 11 break points while converting 6 of 10 break-point chances against Parrizas Diaz.
No. 4 seed Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia took care of Raluka Serban of Cyprus 7-6 (3), 6-3, and Brazilian sixth seed Laura Pigossi needed just 63 minutes to beat Colombia’s Antonia Samudio 6-1, 6-0.
Canada’s Carol Zhao rallied to beat Argentina’s Maria Carle 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) in a match that took three hours and 26 minutes. Fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic also advanced.
–Field Level Media