American Sloane Stephens caused the first big shock on the women’s side at Wimbledon on Monday when she took out two-time champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court.
The former US Open champion, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon in 2013, returned aggressively and never allowed 10th-seed Kvitova, the winner in 2011 and 2014, to settle as she recorded only her second win over a top-10 player since 2018.
“Obviously seeing the first-round draw I was like, ‘oh boy, it’s going to be a difficult task,'” Stephens said. “But knowing I would play on a big court, feeling good [was inspirational]. Petra’s an amazing player, but playing in front of fans again was really incredible.”
Stephens, now ranked No. 73 but once as high as No. 3, chose not to play a grass-court tournament in the lead-up, having reached the fourth round at the French Open.
But though she was broken in the first game of the match, she was sharp throughout and saved four break points in the sixth game of the second set before breaking in the following game on her way to victory.
“Not playing on grass for two years and being able to come back first match and play on Centre Court is really just a dream,” she said. “I’m just excited to be competing.
“I love grass. It’s just not really translated. It’s been a couple of years since I had good results on grass. But here is a good start, beating a really good grass-court player, hopefully I can have a good run here.”
Stephens’ win got the attention of fellow American Frances Tiafoe, who pulled a major upset himself on Monday in defeating world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I was so hyped for her,” Tiafoe said. “I’m a guy who always, if someone is doing well, show the love. Seeing her doing so well in Paris, I loved that. People forget that this girl won a slam.”
Stephens will play Heather Watson of Great Britain or American Kristie Ahn in the second round.