Sloane Stephens vs Beatriz Haddad Maia Prediction

Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens will face Brazilian 18th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Monday, August 28, 2023.

Sloane Stephens has fond memories of this tournament after she shockingly won the 2017 edition of the US Open. Even though she made the quarterfinal as a defending champion a year later, her results have been subpar in recent years. Stephens has not progressed beyond the third-round stage in each of her last four visits to New York and starts Monday's match against Brazil's No. 18 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia as a slight underdog. The good thing for the American is that she has put some much-needed hard-court momentum coming to this year's US Open having won six of her past nine matches including a quarterfinal run in Cleveland this past week.

Beatriz Haddad Maia has already broken new ground at Grand Slam level, having made the French Open semifinals this year, becoming the first Brazilian woman in the Open Era to do so. But the 27-year-old Sao Paulo native hasn't been in winning touch in the lead-up to the US Open, losing in the second round of the Canadian Open to Leylah Fernandez and more recently to Karolina Muchova in three tough sets in her opening match in Cincinnati. Can she return to winning ways when she takes on Sloane Stephens on Monday?

Beatriz Haddad won their only match in the head-to-head over four years ago, so that shouldn't hold any weight in the outcome of this match. When she is on song, Sloane Stephens is one of the cleanest hitters on tour. No doubt this match will feature plenty of long rallies as both players will try to outsmart each other in a baseline slugfest. Stephens has the knockout punch in her arsenal and the setting couldn't have been any better for the American to rise to the occasion. In 11 main draw visits, Stephens has lost in the first round of the US Open on just two occasions, the last of which came in 2019 when she barely won any matches going into that tournament. We think Stephens can navigate through an almighty scrap and account for a scalp of the tournament's 18th seed.