Sloane Stephens beats Victoria Azarenka, reaches fourth round of U.S. Open

Sloane Stephens seems to have Victoria Azarenka’s number this season, and that number currently stands at three.

Stephens beat Azarenka, 6-3, 6-4, in a well-contested third-round match at the U.S. Open on Friday, the third time she has beaten her this season after back-to-back wins at Indian Wells and Miami in March.

What started under cloudy skies and finished under the closed roof at Ashe Stadium was some pretty high-level tennis with plenty of long, hard-hitting, scampering rallies.

After a particularly entertaining seventh game of the second set, a few drops of rain fell, prompting tournament referee Brian Earley to come out to the court and signal that the roof be closed. It was 1:40 p.m. when the roof segments began their crawl and when they touched the crowd cheered, rather like watching an eclipse. It was less than seven minutes when play resumed.

Azarenka had just broken Stephens to go up 4-3 and seemed to be gaining traction, but the closure seemed to interrupt that. Serving in the next game, Azarenka hit a couple of backhands wide, giving up the break and eliciting a scream from the usually mouse-quiet Stephens. From there, Stephens held serve then broke Azarenka in the 10th game for the match.

It was a strong effort for the defending champion, who was particularly happy with her fight level. When Stephens was just starting out she lost her first three matches to Azarenka, who was at the top of the game.

“I think my fight was good, but I thought that there were some points that were very crucial, like in the second,” Stephens said. “When you win or lose those points, sometimes that’s how the matches go. Yeah, she’s right. It was a few points in the second that really kind of changed the match.”

While Azarenka wasn’t particularly happy with the roof situation, she wasn’t making excuses.

“Of course it was a change of momentum. I won’t be sitting here finding excuses. It’s just what happens. You just have to accept,” she said. “I just think from the tournament side, if they’re expecting the showers, I think it might be better to just close the roof right from the beginning . . . Hopefully they will do it in the future, but, you know, I’m not going to be sitting here finding any excuses. Not at all.”

After returning to the game in June 2017 after the birth of her son Leo in December 2016, a return complicated by a custody dispute, Azarenka has struggled to find the high level of tennis that saw her win back-to-back Australian Opens in 2012 and 2013 and reach No. 1 in the world.

“Today, you know, I played OK,” Azarenka said. “It was just a matter of a few points and those points that I still don’t do enough and they cost me the match. I played against the No. 3 player in the world with all the chances in the world. That’s a positive . . . It’s not easy to be optimistic, but I will have to force myself to be that way.”