CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Top-seeded American Sloane Stephens outlasted Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) to advance Tuesday at the WTA’s Volvo Car Open.
Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, needed almost 2 hours, 40 minutes to put away Tormo in the season’s first clay-court tournament. The 2016 Volvo Car Open champion was not crisp during several stretches. She fell behind Sorribes Tormo 5-2 in the first set before rallying. Stephens also squandered two match points at 5-4 in the second set before winning the tiebreaker.
The start of play was delayed three hours because of rain.
Other seeded players advancing were No. 12 Mahaela Buzarnescu of Romania, No. 15 Maria Sakkari of Greece and No. 16 Petra Martic of Croatia.
