Stephens bundled out of Australian Open

Reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens’ Australian Open campaign has gone down in flames, with the young American becoming the first big-name casualty of the tournament.

The 13th-seeded 24-year-old, now winless in eight attempts since her surprise maiden major last September, fell 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to world No.34 Zhang Shuai in seesawing match to open proceedings at Margaret Court Arena on Monday.

The giant-killing Zhang added Stephens to a long list of Melbourne Park scalps after defeating Simona Halep, Alize Cornet and Madison Keys on her way the quarter-finals in 2016.

“This court (is) really special for me,” Zhang said after evening her head-to-head ledger with Stephens at 2-2.

“When I come back here for warm-up … I’m feeling so exciting. So I think I’m ready today.”

In the early stages, Stephens showed no signs of her sluggish year-end form, posting 14 winners to race through the first set in 38 minutes.

At 4-all in the second, the young American seemingly stuck the killer blow to break Zhang’s serve for the sixth time.

But the second-ranked Chinese women’s player rallied from 4-5 down to force a second-set tiebreaker, and later a deciding final set.

After breaking in the first game, Zhang never looked back to break Stephens’ serve again before holding her nerve on serve to close out the 2013 Australian Open semi-finalist.

The 28-year-old was well aware she had pulled off another major upset.

“I play against a top player,” she said.

“Sloane she plays so well, and she win the US Open, everyone knows she’s good player, I like her so much.”

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