After shaky second set, Stephens ousts Sorribes Tormo at French Open

When Sloane Stephens met Sara Sorribes Tormo on green clay in Charleston in April, she found herself down set point before pushing on to win two demanding tiebreakers.

A switch to the red dirt Wednesday in Paris at first presented a different story, until midway through the second set—which Stephens led 3-0, but would soon trail by a break at 4-5 and 5-6.

In the end, Stephens defeated Sorribes Tormo to advance to the French Open third round with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory.

“She raised her game a lot. I’m happy to get that second set,” Stephens told Cedric Pioline on-court afterwards.

Stephens, last year’s Roland Garros finalist, is aiming to capture her first European clay-court title. This season, her best result coming into Paris was a semifinal result in Madrid. It’s been a fruitful spring thus far for the American, who recently added coach Sven Groeneveld to her team and became engaged to soccer player Jozy Altidore.

"Bringing on Sven, I have had a lot of structure the last couple of weeks. I feel like I'm in a good head space," Stephens later said in her press conference. "I'm playing better. I'm seeing the court well, which I think is really important for me. My movement is good. Everything is just kind of falling into place, and that's kind of what you want.

"When your home life is good and your family is good and you're happy, I think that definitely does affect how you play on court."

Against Sorribes Tormo, Stephens converted the first four break points she earned, handling her opponent's heavy spin with relative ease. The seventh seed countered with her own variety of depth and angles to pull the Spaniard away for open court finishes and seemed to be in complete control, winning all 11 of her first serve points in the opening set on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Having dropped nine of the first 10 games, Sorribes Tormo worked to extend baseline rallies through her slice—with 10 lasting for 10 shots plus over the next six games. The strategy was effective: the 22-year-old took 15 of 18 points at one stage, and forced Stephens to engage into the gritty type of battle that played out eight weeks earlier.

Six consecutive breaks of serve were exchanged, with Sorribes Tormo failing to serve out the set twice. Once again, the two found themselves playing out a tiebreaker, and like before, Stephens was the stronger pressure point player. The 2017 US Open champion locked up the victory in 86 minutes, finishing with 24 winners to 23 unforced errors.