Stephens, Krejcikova check into Roland Garros week two with Muchova, Svitolina upsets

Back in one of her favourite hunting grounds, Sloane Stephens confirmed her resurgent form with a second straight upset of a Czech seed, defeating No.18 Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 55 minutes.

The 2018 runner-up will next face another Czech - Barbora Krejcikova, fresh off her maiden title in Strasbourg last week, who extended her winning streak to eight by ousting No.6 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2.

The results mean that the only seeds remaining in the top quarter of the draw are No.13 Jennifer Brady, No.24 Coco Gauff and No.25 Ons Jabeur. The unseeded Stephens is the only player left in that section who has gone beyond the fourth round in Paris before.

Indeed, Roland Garros has been a site of remarkable consistency for the American. Stephens has now reached the fourth round on seven of her 10 appearances here, and turned in an impressive performance to triumph in a high-quality encounter.

"My first big fourth round or whatever at a slam was here," Stephens said. "And obviously consistently making fourth round here has been kind of a staple for me, which has been great. Obviously one of my favorite tournaments of the year, so peaking here has always been really important. The consistency of always doing well here has always brought back good memories."

Stephens controlled proceedings with cool-headed tactics and execution to advance to a 6-3, 2-0 lead. Pushing Muchova deep off the baseline with heavy topspin, the World No.59 landed 84% of her first serves and blended counterpunching with aggression for a successful strategy.

By contrast, Muchova was intermittently able to pull off spectacular winners, but unable to translate that into a coherent overall approach. Neither was the Australian Open semifinalist able to make an impact on return, bringing up only one break point through Stephens' first six service games.

Down a set and a break, Muchova belatedly began to click. A dazzling passage of play saw her conjure up an elegant stab volley and remarkable angled pass to break back for 2-2. The remainder of the set would be a treat for fans as both players brought their best to bear against each other.

Ultimately, Stephens was more solid, particularly on the biggest points. She ended with 22 winners to Muchova's 23, but the latter was looser with the unforced errors, totalling 32 to Stephens' 25. Muchova also paid the price for several overly casual net approaches which played into the hands of Stephens' stellar passing shots.

This year's clay season has hauled Stephens out of a slump that had dated back over a year. The former World No.3 struggled in 2020, compiling a 4-11 win-loss record, and did not beat a Top 100 player between September 2019 and April 2021.

Family tragedy at the beginning of the year exacerbated this: recently, Stephens has opened up about a tough period in which she attended her grandparents' funeral via Zoom while in Australian hard quarantine.

A quarterfinal run in Charleston set the 2017 US Open champion back on the right track; her record since that tournament is 11-5.

"I took the time to get myself together," said Stephens. "Find what makes me happy on court, and find my groove back. Obviously results didn't happen right away, but I knew eventually things would connect, and it's nice that since Charleston they have started to come together."

Krejcikova cruises to second Top 10 win

Last year, Roland Garros was the site of Barbora Krejcikova's belated singles breakthrough. A former doubles World No.1 who had won the title in 2018 with Katerina Siniakova, she snuck into the singles main draw with a World No.114 ranking. Her resultant fourth-round run enabled her to crack the Top 100, and ever since Krejcikova has kept rising.

A first WTA 1000 final in Dubai followed in March, and last week the 25-year-old captured her maiden title in Strasbourg. Having also scored her first Top 10 win over Sofia Kenin in Rome, Krejcikova posted a second over Svitolina to return to the second week in Paris.

It was a slick performance from Krejcikova, who played with contained aggression to keep her nose in front throughout and landed 38 winners to 28 unforced errors. The disguise on her shots was key. Frequently, Krejcikova would casually find a winning angle or redirection from a neutral position, seemingly without injecting any extra pace.

Svitolina, a three-time quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, was kept off balance throughout. The Ukrainian turned in a tidy stat sheet of 20 winners to 19 unforced errors, but was unable to get any consistent foothold in the match.

Krejcikova would also win arguably the most important tussle in the contest, an extraordinary 13-deuce hold for 5-3 in the first set that clocked in at over 20 minutes. She saved four break points, and ultimately held with a silky forehand winner.

"I don't really remember the game," she admitted afterwards. "I just know that I was serving for a long time, and it was just all the time deuce, advantage, deuce, advantage, deuce, advantage. I thought it was really a key maybe to the match [...] that was the key game that I was able to hold the serve."

Krejcikova was also happy with sticking to her aggressive strategy to close out the match, slamming three winners to break Svitolina in the final game.

"I've been playing a lot of matches where I actually was leading, and then I just started to play really passive and then I lost," she said. "So I don't want to make the same mistake again. I was just saying to myself, okay, you go, you're going to play your shot and you win or you lose. There's nothing wrong about not really actually closing the match because that's normal. It happens to so many other players, so many higher players.

"So I just felt, okay, I'm going to go. I'm going to try to play my tennis, my best shots, and let's see, and if I close it, it's going to be perfect."

In the end, perfect is exactly what it was.