Citi Open 2014: Sloane Stephens Disappoints in DC

Sloane Stephens tumbled out of Washington, DC’s Citi Open late Tuesday evening in a desultory three set loss to fellow American player Christina McHale.  

Christina prevailed over her compatriot in three sets, winning the deciding set at love.

After rising star Genie Bouchard withdrew from the DC tournament, many expected Sloane to be in the winner’s circle this weekend.  But Sloane, who has yet to win a title on tour and whose performances outside of the majors have disappointed, was unable to make it past the 1^st round.

Sloane was pensive after the match and attributed the pressures of, “being an American, playing the US Open Series,” as one of the reasons for her less than stellar performance in the nation’s capital.  “Honestly, I didn’t play my best and honestly, I don’t think she played her best,” said Stephens after the match.

Sloane has some familiarity with winning in the District.  She was a key member of the World Team Tennis (WTT) Washington Kastles team that won its fifth WTT title in six years on Monday night.

Always amazing @FLOTUS pic.twitter.com/EnGPbeZl0U
— Sloane Stephens (@sloanetweets) July 23, 2014

However, Sloane was unable to find a way to win at the Citi Open, “she [Christina McHale] played a great third set. I made a lot of errors and obviously that doesn’t work well.  I played really poorly in the third set,” said Stephens.

Next, Sloane will head up north to Canada to compete in Montreal.  She’ll spend the rest of the week working with her new coach and trying to learn from what went wrong in DC, “I’m just going to go back and regroup and get ready,” she said.