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Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens suffered a shock first-round loss to world number 217 Katie Swan on day one of the Bad Homburg Open.
British player Swan, who will be competing on a wildcard at Wimbledon, scored a 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory over her American opponent.
Although Stephens has not been regularly hitting the heights of her 2017 Flushing Meadows triumph in recent seasons, the world number 48 would have fancied getting past Swan on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Swan needed a wildcard just to get into qualifying for this event in Germany, and she is due to play doubles alongside Stephens on Monday.
The match began well enough for Stephens, but Swan began to relish the matchup and levelled the contest before dominating the deciding set. Swan let three match points slip by, serving two double faults as the tension got to her, but the win was secured when Stephens drilled a forehand into the net.
Speaking in an on-court interview, Swan said: “It feels great. Sloane is an amazing player. She’s a grand slam champion, and you can’t get much better than that.
“We’re actually playing doubles together tomorrow, so hopefully that’ll be fun. I’m so happy to come through that one. It’s my first tournament on grass not in England, so it’s been fun so far, and it’s probably my best result.”
Other winners on Sunday in Bad Homburg included Caroline Garcia and Kamilla Rakhimova, who upset eighth seed Liudmila Samsonova.
At the Eastbourne International, where Serena Williams is due to make her tennis comeback by playing doubles in the coming days, first-round winners on Sunday included Marta Kostyuk, Kaia Kanepi and Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Poland’s Magdalena Frech enjoyed a 6-3 6-0 stroll against Zheng Qinwen, the 19-year-old Chinese player who beat Simona Halep before causing Iga Swiatek plenty of problems at the recent French Open.
