Sloane Stephens played in her first match since Wimbledon against Olga Puchkova at the Citi Open on Monday, and things didn’t fair well for the American tennis player.
The No. 2 seeded Stephens, who hadn’t been practicing well, fell to Puchkova, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the tournament.
“Leading up, I didn’t practice that great and I just wasn’t feeling the ball out there,” Stephens told reporters. “Sometimes you have days like that and it’s unfortunate that it came today.”
The highest-ranked American behind Serena Williams, Stephens’ service game was less than par—which opened the door for the unseeded and 88th-ranked Russian. Stephens didn’t record a single ace and allowed Puchkova 15 break points.
“I couldn’t really get it together, but there will be more tournaments, so it’s OK,” Stephens ended.
