Sloane Stephens has not played since the French Open and after playing a very solid French Open she's back to struggling again losing to Swan 6-2 4-6 2-6.
It's been a couple of frustrating months for the former grand slam champion as she simply can't get to her former levle. She's not even close and while at times she does flash a bit like at Roland Garros it's mostly terrible losses against players she should be beating regularly. Another one came against Katie Swan in Bad Homburg with the British player proving better.
Sure, Swan is British and she certainly knows her way around the grass courts but to start this match Stephens played rather well. She was aggressive she was hitting the ball well and she jumped out to an early lead. From there she largely cruised to a 6-2 finish.
The 2nd set featured a rough start for both with four losses of serve in the first four games. Swan played a bit better and it paid off later on in the set when she got a late break to close it out with 6-4. Stephens took a MTO in that 2nd set but continued to play. Things did not end well for her as Swan took another early lead in the final set and then added another break later to finish it off 6-2.