Francesca Schiavone has defeated Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the first round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Schiavone won the match by 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Schiavone was not looking in the greatest of forms at the start of the match and she lost the opening set. But, the 32 years Old Italian veteran made a tremendous come back and won the match. The match went on for 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Both the players broke each other’s service twice in the first four games of the opening set and the scores were levelled at 2-2. The next four games went with the serve and the scores remained levelled. Shvedova managed to get another breakthrough in the ninth game and she didn’t lose that advantage. She easily served out the next game and won the first set by 6-4.

Shvedova got some confidence after winning the first set and she started the second set pretty well. She broke Schiavone’s service in the very first game and held her service in the second game to make the score 2-0. But, the young Kazakh star didn’t manage to maintain the lead till the end of the set. Schiavone got a breakthrough in the sixth game and the scores got levelled. There were no breakthroughs in the next six games and the set went into the tie breaker. Schiavone won the tie breaker and took the match to the third set.

In the third set, Shvedova looked a bit nervous and her service was broken in the third game. Schiavone held her service in the fourth game to get ahead by 3-1. Shvedova wasn’t able to level the scores after that and lost the match.

In the second round, Schiavone will take on Samantha Stosur of Australia.

Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Sloane Stephens of USA in the opening round of the US Open. Stephens won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-4. The American youngster showed brilliant temperament in the match and stunned the experienced Italian player. Schiavone looked under pressure throughout the match. She didn’t serve well and neither did she manage to play the return shots with fluency.

Stephens was off to a fantastic start in the match. She got a breakpoint in the second game of the first set and she capitalized on that to take a lead of 2-0. However, the Italian veteran made an immediate comeback in the match and broke Stephens’ service in the next game to make the score 2-1. Schiavone levelled the score by holding her service in the 4^th game. The next three games went with the serve and Stephens was ahead by 4-3 at the end of the seventh game. The American youngster managed to sneak a breakthrough in the eighth game and then, held her service in the next game to win the first set by 6-3.

Stephens carried on the momentum in the second set as well. She broke Schiavone’s service in the very first game of the second set and then, served out the next game to make the score 2-0. But, Schiavone was able to equalise the score by capitalizing on the breakpoint that she got in the 4^th game. Stephens got ahead in the set again by sneaking a breakthrough in the very next game. She maintained the lead till the end of the set and won the match. In the second round, Stephens will take on Tatjana Malek of Germany who made her way to the second round by defeating Akgul Amanmuradova.