World number eight and six-time champion Serena Williams will face fellow American Sloane Stephens in the third round of the 2020 US Open and the match will be played Saturday, September 5. The timings will be announced soon. Get the live streaming options of this Serena Williams v Sloane Stephens match along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Serena Williams v Sloane Stephens Head to Head
There have been six matches between these two players but none since the 2015 French Open where Serena scraped through to a three-set win over Stephens. Overall Serena leads 5-1 on head to head against Stephens.
Three of these six matches have come at Grand Slams and Serena leads 2-1 with Stephens’ sole win coming in the 2013 Australian Open quarterfinal. That was the first of three semifinals Stephens had featured in, in a Grand Slam in her career. The other two resulted in a title win and a runner-up trophy. In their only meeting at the US Open, in 2013, Serena was a 6-4, 6-1 winner.
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Williams Has it Easy
In our previous pieces on this site, we have spoken about how Serena has had a few struggles in recent times, with a string of three-setters to her name. The last six of her matches, including one just prior to the pandemic lockdown had all gone into three sets.
Which is why back to back straight set wins in the US Open right now would have felt that much nicer, and calmed Serena’s nerves as she hunts for that elusive 24th Grand Slam title. In the first round, Kristie Ahn did stretch her a little even in that straight set win but against Margarita Gasparyan in the second round, things looked a lot easier.
Williams was quickly off the blocks in the first set, racing off to a 3-0 lead and then broke Gasparyan again to make it 5-1. A surprise break-back from the Russian only prolonged the agony before Serena wrapped up the opening set 6-2.
Things looked to be not so different in the second set either as Gasparyan continued to struggle with her holds and while she did have a chance to level back at 3-2, once she had missed that, there was no looking back for the American.
With her confidence soared, Serena will look to take another step forward and move to the fourth round of the US Open – something she has done every time she has played this tournament since 1999.
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Stephens Wins Two in a Row First Time
If the previous season was a forgettable one for the 2017 US Open champion, this has been worse. A first round loss at both, the Lexington Open and Cincinnati Open immediately after the pandemic break did nothing to change the mood and Stephens entered the US Open with the fans fear another early exit.
She has quelled those worries for now.
In the opening round, Stephens was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Mihaela Buzarnescu before crushing Olga Govortsova 6-2, 6-2 in the second. And while on paper she had gone into both those encounters as a favourite, the relief from winning them the way she did was evident.
Now comes Stephens’ big test. She faces a tennis behemoth, a player she would have looked up to growing up and one who, despite a few hiccups in recent times, remains a player to beat.
Can she turn the clock back to 2017 and dish out a performance of the season?
Williams v Stephens Prediction & Tip
Williams is 2/7 to win this and we are backing her to win this but it’s a different question if she would coast home to a victory. Looking at a slightly stiff contest which goes deep into the second set.
Tip: Over 20.5 games in the match: 10/11 (bet365)
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The US Open 2020 will be played from August 31 to September 13. You can watch & bet on the US Open here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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