Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Stephens out of Family Circle Cup in 2nd round

On Monday, Bethanie Mattek-Sands played the longest match of the year when she and Anastasia Rodionova went for 3 hours and 42 minutes in the first round in Charleston. Tuesday evening, Mattek-Sands beat 4th seed Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-0 in just under an hour. From the first moment, Mattek-Sands demonstrated her signature aggression, and Stephens had no answer. Stephens also appeared somewhat flat throughout the match. Anyone not knowing who was who would have assumed it was Stephens who had played for almost four hours the day before.

After the match, Mattek-Sands said that, following her Monday ordeal, she had taken an ice bath, then an Epsom salt bath. She slept for twelve hours, got up for a while, then took a nap. Her next opponent will be either Madison Keys or Grace Min.

Defending doubles champion Lucie Safarova, playing for the first time with Kristina Mladenovic, advanced to the second round yesterday when she and Mladenovic defeated the wild card team of Jelena Jankovic and Andrea Petkovic.

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