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Sloane Stephens reached the third quarter-final of the 2023 season at the Rabat Grand Prix on Wednesday. The second seed won her round-of-16 match against Timea Babos 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 19 minutes. Stephens won 67% of her first-serve points and 71% of her second-serve points.
She also won 75% points on return on the Hungarian’s second serve. The 2018 French Open finalist failed to save the lone break point she faced but converted five break points on Babos’ serve. Prior to making the quarters here, Stephens had reached two consecutive quarter-finals, at the Merida Open in Mexico and the ATX Open in the US.
Looking to make it to her first semi-final this year, the world no. 35 will play fellow countrywoman, Peyton Stearns. Stearns ousted fifth seed Leylah Fernandez in their second-round match. The 21-year-old needed two hours and two minutes to clinch a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory for herself.
Rabat Grand Prix: Alycia Parks' regaining form
Martina Trevisan, the top-seeded player in the draw this week, needed more than two hours and 30 minutes to beat Jana Fett in their second-round match-up. The 2022 French Open semi-finalist eventually prevailed 7-5, 7-5.
Trevisan saved six of nine break points she faced while converting 16 of 21 break points. She finished the match with 101 points to Fett’s 92. In the quarter-finals, the world no. 26 will take on Julia Grabher. The Austrian won 6-1, 7-6(4) against Cagla Buyukakcay.
Argentina’s Julia Riera notched a noteworthy win of her own against third seed Mayar Sherif. Riera, ranked 195th in the world needed exactly two hours and 30 minutes to score a 7-5, 7-5 win over the Egyptian. Sixth seed Yulia Putintseva will be Riera’s next opponent.
The Kazakh needed 74 minutes to claim a 6-2, 6-1 win over France’s Leolia Jeanjean. Lucia Bronzetti ousted eighth seed Tatjana Maria in the second round. The Italian came from a set down to beat the German 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-5 to move into the quarters.
Bronzetti’s next rival will be fourth seed Alycia Parks. Bucking the trend of seeds exiting at the Rabat Grand Prix, Parks scored a 6-4, 6-1 win over Kamilla Rakhimova. This is the third time in her career Parks’ made it to the quarters of a WTA event.
Earlier, she reached the quarters of the 2022 Ostrava Open and the 2023 Lyon International, going on to win the latter event. Photo Credit: WTA Twitter