Sloane Stephens summed up her Roland Garros collapse succinctly today: "It sucks and I'm sad."
Tsvetana Pironkova won 12 of the final 13 games swiping Stephens aside, 6-2, 6-1, to roll into a Roland Garros fourth-round match with second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.
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The loss snaps Stephens' streak of four consecutive French Open fourth-round appearances.
"I played her a couple times, but, I mean, she just gave me the mop today. That's all I can really say," Stephens said afterward. "It sucks and I'm sad, but she played a good match."
Shelby Rogers, who upset 10th-seeded Petra Kvitova, is the first American woman through to the round of 16. World No. 1 Serena Williams, former finalist Venus Williams and 15th-seeded Madison Keys will all try to reach the fourth round tomorrow.
Stephens seemed to freeze after taking a 2-0 lead minutes in the match. Pironkova plowed through 18 straight points as a flat Stephens failed to move her feet quickly and offer much resistance.
"It was really unfortunate," Stephens said. "She played some good tennis, and I couldn't find a way to kind of dig it out. I mean, looking back on it, it's really poor on my part. Nothing you can do at this point."
The 19th-seeded American was powerless to stop the onslaught from the flat-hitting Pironkova, a 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist, whose best Roland Garros result came last year when she suffered a straight-sets loss to Stephens in the third round.
"I was thinking, Okay, I just lost seven games; should probably win one now. Be a good time,' " Stephens said. "But I was like, I can find a way to do something, and if you watch the end of the match you can see that nothing was really happening. Like I said, just one of those days.
It was a listless effort from Stephens, who has won three titles this year, including the Charleston crown on Har-Tru, and had not dropped a set in the tournament.
"It's a tournament," Stephens said. "Obviously I want to do well here, but, I mean, my life isn't over because I didn't make the fourth round for the fourth year in a row or something. It'll be okay."
Photo credit: Cedric Lecocq/FFT