Sloane Stephens missed the jump to the quarter finals of the China Open. The US Open winner of 2017 must therefore continue to fear for her qualification for the WTA final in Singapore (from 21 October).
Stephens, who was seeded ninth in Beijing, lost in the Night Session with 6:4, 2:6, 3:6 against the strong Dominika Cibulkova. It is unusual that the Slovakian could allow herself more unforced mistakes (36) than Stephens (25), but also did worse in the Winnern (20:22) – but still could leave the National Tennis Stadium as winner after more than two hours.
Former Australian Open finalist Cibulkova, who eliminated Kerber at the US Open Angelique in Kiel, will now face Anastasija Sevastova in the final eight. The Latvian had defeated Donna Vekic (Croatia), coached by German coach Torben Beltz, 6:3, 6:2 in the round of 16 on Wednesday.
For Stephens the hard court event in the Chinese metropolis ended with a disappointment. The 2017 New York winner and reigning French Open finalist had failed in Tokyo and Wuhan for the first two weeks.
Stephens is still struggling to qualify for the WTA final in Singapore (from 21 October), which will feature the top eight players of the season. In the decisive Porsche Race to Singapore, the 25-year-old from Florida was seventh before the start of the tournament.
At least Stephens had defeated a curse in Beijing and celebrated her first success in Asia in three years. After her successful start in the first lap against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, however, she was criticized.
The American woman (“You’re not hurt at all”) had had a battle of words with the Russian woman and accused her of wrongly calling the physio onto the court after a break she had taken.
Here is the single tableau from Beijing