U.S. Open: Sloane Stephens defeats Anhelina Kalinina after dropping first set

In the giant sweatbox that was Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sloane Stephens was feeling the heat, and it wasn’t just about the temperature.

The 2017 U.S. Open champion was getting all she could handle from one Anhelina Kalinina, a 21-year-old Ukrainian who had never played in a Grand Slam until she won her three qualifying matches here last week. Heck, she had  played in only two tour level events  in her career, losing in the first round, and has spent much of this season playing in ITF events around the United States.

Still, here she was, the 134th-ranked player in the world making the No. 3 player in the world sweat like the dickens. Sure, it was in the mid-90s with the heat index of more than 100, so perspiration was the order of the day. But Kalinina came out on fire, and it took Stephens two hours and 46 minutes to finally quell it.

Stephens’ 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory was hard earned and the applause Kalinina got from the Ashe crowd was richly deserved. Kalinina went for her shots, painted the lines nicely through the first two sets and won a number of side-to-side rallies against a player with one of the best pair of feet in the game.

There was an element of surprise for Stephens.

“I literally had never seen her before,” Stephens said. “Like, when I walked on court, I was, like, ‘OK, that's who that is.’ She's playing with a lot of confidence, played four matches already.

“She was playing well. I just kind of had to weather the storm and wait for my opportunities. I wish I could have been playing a little bit better. That would have helped the situation. But I just found a way today, and sometimes it's not going to be the best, but you've just got to battle through.”

Kalinina broke Stephens to win the first set, but Stephens seemed to stifle that momentum by breaking Kalinina in the first and third games of the second set to go up 3-0, having fought off three break points in the second game. Kalinina broke Stephens in the fourth game, then Stephens came right back with a break in the fifth, and wouldn’t you know it, Kalinina got a break in the sixth.

Stephens served for the set at 5-4 and got broken for 5-5. In the ultimate see-saw match, Stephens broke again for 6-5. In the 12th game Kalinina had a break point at 30-40, but made two forehand errors and Stephens closed out the set with a winner.

The players took a 10-minute heat break at the end of the second set and Stephens had friends bring her some sushi. She also changed her tennis attire for a third time.

“Normally, I don't think all year I have ever changed my outfit, and today I changed it three times. That just shows you how actually hot it was out,” Stephens said.

The heat went out of Kalinina’s game in the third set and Stephens was through to the third round, where she will play the dangerous Victoria Azarenka, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Daria Gavrilova. She beat Azarenka in a close match on her way to the Miami title in the spring.