Match two, Centre Court. Head-to-head: Watson leads 3-0
Sloane Stephens showed no ill effects of Saturday’s escapades at the circus on Sunday, as she dismantled Monica Niculescu with a nerveless 6-4 6-2 victory. There were flashes of her best tennis and plenty to be said for her improving consistency after a forgettable 2014 season that came to a premature end in September.
> Replay: Sloane Stephens v Monica Niculescu
The No.5 seed faces second-round opponent Heather Watson for the fourth time in their career, and while the British No.1 has not lost to the American in their three encounters to date, their last meeting was back in 2012 when both were still teenagers. Still, all three matches have gone the distance, Watson proving the stronger in the third on each occasion.
Strength has been the focus of Watson’s off-season. The 22-year-old former US Open junior champion is finally showing signs of her true potential since adopting a more attack-minded game over the past 12 months, beating Hobart’s top seed Casey Dellacqua at the Hopman Cup last week. Can she pull off another morale-boosting top-50 win ahead of the Australian Open?
Order of play, 11am start (PDF):
[Q] J Larsson (SWE) v K Nara (JPN)
H Watson (GBR) v [5] S Stephens (USA)
[9] R Vinci (ITA) v A Beck (GER)
[1] C Black (ZIM) & S Zheng (CHN) v V Diatchenko (RUS) & M Niculescu (ROU)
Not Before 7pm
[3] C Giorgi (ITA) v K Kanepi (EST)
A Nancarrow (AUS) & S Sanders (AUS) v M Lucic-Baroni (CRO) & L Raymond (USA)