Sloane's struggle is real: No. 270 Zarazua shocks Stephens in Acapulco

What do the numbers 35, 129, 201, and now, 270, represent?

Those are the rankings of players that Sloane Stephens has lost to this season, as the former US Open champion heads into March without a victory to her name in 2020.

On Tuesday evening in Acapulco, Mexico's Renata Zarazua scored the biggest victory of her career to the delight of her home crowd, ousting the top seed, 6-4, 6-2. The 270th-ranked wild card won 18 of 24 return points against the American’s second serve, and after failing to serve out the match, broke the 2016 winner for a fifth time to complete the upset in 85 minutes.

Zarazua now awaits the winner of an all-American encounter between Shelby Rogers and Katie Volynets. She achieved her career-high ranking of No. 186 in June of 2018, with her best previous win this year coming over No. 281 Grace Min at the ITF $25k tournament in Vero Beach, FL.

Stephens dropped to 0-4 on the year and hasn’t won a match since defeating Magda Linette in the first round of Beijing at the end of last September. The 26-year-old won’t have any points to defend at Indian Wells, having bowed out in her opener last year to Stefanie Voegele.