The highly anticipated Serena Williams vs Sloane Stephens US Open 2013 fourth round match lived up to expectations as both top-ranked Williams and 15th-seed Stephens produced their best tennis to try and outplay each other. In the end it was top-ranked Williams who emerged as the winner 6-4, 6-1.
Williams and Stephens both split their previous two meetings with Stephens losing their match in Brisbane but avenged that defeat at the Australian Open 2013 quarterfinals.
“Going into the match I definitely wanted to be focused the whole time,” Williams said. “That’s all I wanted to do. Whether I was going to win or lose, I just wanted to play my game and do well today.
“It was definitely a high quality match out there. We both came out today to play. At the end of the day it was a fourth round match, but it definitely had feelings of a quarterfinal or a semifinal match.”
Up next for Williams is Spain’s 18th-seed Carla Suarez Navarro who came from behind to defeat eighth-seed Angelique Kerber of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Despite the loss, Stephens was satisfied with how she played the match against the world’s top player.
“There were times I played some really good tennis, though the second set got away from me a little bit,” Stephens said. “But overall I thought I played well. She’s No.1 in the world for a reason.
“It didn’t go how I wanted, but I competed well and played well, and that’s all you can do.”
