Unscheduled departure for Stephens
Sloane Stephens was unusually late to arrive to the grass court season, and unexpectedly early to depart her first Wimbledon as a reigning Grand Slam champion. The US Open winner was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by world No.55 Donna Vekic, as the Croat recorded her first career victory over a member of the top five.
In her first match since losing the Roland-Garros final to Simona Halep, No.4 seed Stephens continued her undulating form at major level, alternating finals with first round defeats at the Australian Open and now at The Championships, as well.
Stephens chose not to play a lead-up event on grass - in contrast to Vekic, who reached the semi-finals of her attempted title defence in Nottingham, also played in Birmingham and won a match at Eastbourne to extend to 9-4 the 22-year-old's record in her past five tournaments on grass.
While struggling with her second serve, and logging nine double faults in the windy conditions on No.1 Court, Vekic won 20 of 23 points on her first serve, and hit 10 fewer unforced errors than Stephens’ 26.
“I’m very happy to win today - especially having lost two years ago to Venus (Williams) on court one, and last year to Jo (Konta) in that long match,’’ said Vekic after finishing her career-best victory in 70 minutes.
"I played all the tournaments on grass, I really enjoy playing on grass, and I was happy to play all the tournaments and get some matches, and that definitely helped me out there today.’’
Stephens, clearly, chose a different route, and moved rather sluggishly in a first set in which she could manage just a single winner. Vekic secured the early break to lead 3-1, then overcame a jittery service game in which she needed to save a break back point after leading 40-0 before closing it out 6-1 in 25 minutes.
Stephens found some spark to peel off eight consecutive points at the start of the second, before another loose game helped Vekic draw back level. Indeed, it proved to be a brief revival, and although the match tightened up slightly the American’s strokes remained tentative, her shot selection sometimes questionable and her timing awry.
The lengthy fifth game of the second set was critical, Vekic eventually winning the arm-wrestle with the help of a double-fault on her sixth break point. Stephens rallied to equalise again before her opponent claimed the last three games, the American netting a final forehand.
This time last year, Stephens was taking her first stuttering steps along the comeback path from January foot surgery, having not played a tournament match since the Rio Olympic Games 11 months earlier. After a first round loss to American Alison Riske, her ranking plunged south of 900. Two months later at the US Open, as the world No.83, Stephens became just the fifth unseeded woman to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era.
But, at Wimbledon, a quarter-final appearance in 2013 - and a loss then to eventual champion Marion Bartoli - remains her best result. Having come to the All England Club with an outside chance of becoming the world No.1, Stephen is already gone from the draw, after what proved to be a very short stay.
Stephens described it as "just a tough day for me", lamenting her tardy footwork and inability to make enough balls, while praising Vekic's performance and the effectiveness of her flat groundstrokes on the grass.
She insisted she had been satisfied with her own preparation. "I had a good training block after the French. I did more than I would normally do. I came in here feeling not too bad. I thought I'd not have a great tournament, but I was feeling good about myself, the way I was playing.
"Obviously (had) a bit of confidence coming off a French Open final, as any player would. But yeah, just today was unfortunate, unlucky. I played a good player on grass. That's tough. Sometimes that happens.''
As to whether she would play a lead-up tournament next year, Stephens said: "Every player is different. I think I did what was best for myself. Every year is different. Maybe next year I'll play a different schedule, maybe not. Just kind of depends.''
