The 24th seed at Australian Open 2020 Sloane Stephens suffered her second consecutive loss in the opening round of Grand Slam. She lost 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 to china’s Zhang Shuai on Day One of the Melbourne major.

On Monday, Stephens was two points away from sealing her first-round match, but the reigning finalist (singles and doubles) from Hobart, Zhang Shuai progressed into the second round. The first set was an easy one for Sloane, but post that Zhang began to exercise her dominance and things became complicated for the American. 

First set Stephens!

The American led by 6-2, 5-4 in the first round battle. World Number 27 Sloane Stephens was serving for the match in the second set but, Zhang fought back to balance the contest. The Chinese professional pulled off the second set 7-5 and their battle was driven into the decider.

Zhang sprinted to take a 4-0 lead in the third set and later Stephens collapsed as the Chinese player closed out the match by taking the deciding set 6-2. In 2018, Sloane Stephens surrendered to Zhang Shuai at Aussie Open’s opening round.

Zhang Shuai battled past Sloane Stephens in Melbourne

Day One on the WTA courts

On the opening day of Australian Open 2020, Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki, Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova, Sofia Kenin and Petra Martic sealed straight-set victories.

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The American tennis phenom Coco Gauff once again defeated the seven-time Grand Slam champion, Venus Williams, in the first round of a Grand Slam. It was Coco’s first match on Melbourne’s turf and she swiftly wrapped up her victory. Gauff will next play Sorana Cirstea from Romania.

“My mission is to be the greatest,” Gauff mentioned after her victory. “That’s my goal, to win as many Grand Slams as possible. But for today, my mission was to win. I didn’t want to let the nerves come to me. I know I had a couple of set points, and she played well. I knew I had to take it from her. She wasn’t going to give it to me. That was really the mission.”

World Number one Ashleigh Barty had to take the extra mile. The home favorite dropped the opening set and later pushed herself to complete her victory in three sets.

Read More – Ashleigh Barty survives scare in first round of Australian Open 2020