Sloane Stephens came from a set and a break down to defeat Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 3-6 6-3 6-2 as first round action continued on day 2 of the 2015 Family Circle Cup. Stephens has played some great tennis in this last month but this was arguably her best win of the year in terms of the way she turned it around. The match began with four consecutive holds and then two consecutive breaks. The match was pretty even at the beginning; Mattek-Sands was the player to draw away as she continued to pepper the Stephens second serve, unleash some winners and finish points at the net. Mattek-Sands is so much fun to watch in this form and she won a tight deuce game at 5-3 to win the opening set.
The match started to snowball at the beginning of the second set as Stephens quickly went down 0-2 with a string of unforced errors. Stephens was struggling to get involved in rallies as Mattek-Sands maintained a great depth on her shots and did not allow Stephens to feel comfortable on the court. Stephens took on the advice of her coach, Nick Saviano and kept going for every shot (not every point, every shot!) and stayed in the present. Mattek-Sands was playing some really decent tennis and led 6-3 3-2 *40-15 at one point. Stephens wasn’t playing her best at all, but she did something that she has all too frequently failed to do in the past… she stuck around. Two years ago, against the same opponent and on the same court, Sloane lost 6-2 6-0 to Bethanie. A year or so ago, that second set would have been over within a flash…
As Stephens started to make more of an impact with her shots, Mattek-Sands went off her game. Stephens won six games in a row and powered through the third set with a clean set of tennis as Mattek-Sands’s sharp and aggressive game started to falter. Sloane didn’t play her best tennis in this match, but the way she managed to turn it around with some grit and determination deserves a lot of credit. Nick Saviano is having a big impact on Sloane this year as i’ve mentioned numerous times before on this blog. A part of me is a little confused why no-one before has been able to instill this kind of attitude in Sloane, but it *seems* to be working now. Stephens finished the match with 36 winners to 29 unforced errors, while Mattek-Sands hit 25 winners to 28 unforced errors. It’s been a tough run for Mattek-Sands who is in desperate need of wins to get her ranking up so she can enter WTA main draws off her ranking. She played some superb tennis in the first set and a half, but consistency remains an issue. Stephens goes through to play Mona Barthel in what should be an intriguing second round match… preview up coming up later today on Moo’s Tennis Blog!
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