Dimitrov, Bouchard, Defending Champ Stephens Fall In D.C.; Fritz v Zverev Today; Venus In Stanford

A trio of stars fell Tuesday in Washington D.C led by defending champion Sloane Stephens who was stunned in her opener by Risa Ozaki 6-2, 6-1.

The 136th-ranked Ozaki dropped serve in her opening game, then reeled off 12 of the last 14 to earn the biggest win of her career.

“I just played real bad. Nothing more, nothing less,” the 23rd-ranked Stephens. “Today just sucked, it was just one of those days where everything was really bad.”

“Obviously, I’m not the first person to have a bad day and I won’t be the last. Hopefully I can pull myself together and next week will be better than this week. I won’t look too deep into this.”

The win was the 22-year-old Ozaki’s first at the tour level in North America.

The tournament also lost former Wimbledon finalist and No. 5 seed Eugenie Bouchard after she fell to Camila Giorgi 7-5, 6-4. Bouchard will now head to her home Canadian Open event next week on a 2-match losing streak.

In the men’s draw, Wimbledon quarterfinal Sam Querrey made a successful summer hardcourt debut beating Bjorn Fratangelo 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Benoit Paire, Alex Dolgopolov and Donald Young were also winners. Grigor Dimitrov’s season continued to spiral downward. The former Top 10 fell to Dan Evans 6-4, 6-4.

The Bulgarian has now 8 of his last 10 matches.

Today, John Isner, Gael Monfils and Bernard Tomic are in action along with an interesting match-up between teens Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz.

On the clay in Kitzbuhel, top seed and home favorite Dominic Thiem opens play Wednesday against returning countryman Jurgen Melzer.

“I am the real underdog tomorrow against Dominic, but of course I will try to keep up with him,” said Melzer. “But I can’t see any weakness when it comes to Dominic playing on outdoor clay.”

On Tuesday, Melzer beat Taro Daniel for his first ATP win in almost a year. The lefty had been sidelined after undergoing left shoulder surgery last fall.

And at the WTA event in Stanford, later tonight 36-year-old Venus Williams plays her first match against Magda Linette. Williams has won the title twice before in 2000 and 2002.