200711: Tour debut, entering the top 100, 2013: Major semifinal, Serena upset, world No. [50], With an improved ranking, Stephens was able to play WTA Tour-level events the entire season. She lost in the first round to qualifier Liudmila Samsonova in three sets. 2. Kamau Murray. She returned to play and win her next match, but ultimately lost in the third round. Masha Maltsava/Lemon Perfect Sloane Stephens. "Happy to have Francis Roig join my team as my new coach! [98] Their partnership proved successful immediately. She has since won five of her six titles, including three in 2016, her first major at the 2017 US Open, and her first Premier Mandatory title in 2018. Stephens played singles for the Smash throughout the season, helping them to earn a No. She has made the list of the Tennis International Hall of Fame, which is well-deserved considering her 157 Singles titles and 32 Doubles titles. She defeated three top-ten players at the event, including No. She defeated four unseeded players to make her first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal and set up her second clash with Williams that month. [17], Stephens began competing in low-level events on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2006 at the age of 13. [46] She then made it through qualifying at the French Open to make her Grand Slam main-draw debut in singles. When she returned to the court, this injury continued to hinder her performance as she did not defeat another top 50 opponent until after the clay-court season. She excels at countering powerfully-hit shots, and is capable of turning defense into offense. It'll be okay, don't worry. Austin mayor Kirk Watson presents Sloane Stephens with the 2023 Catalyst award Thursday night along with a $250,000 check to her foundation that works to introduce tennis to young players . [193] She beat Nuria Prrizas Daz during the tie against Spain. [68] Despite these struggles, Stephens produced another good Grand Slam tournament result at the French Open, where she defeated three unseeded opponents none ranked higher than No. [116] In the fourth round, she defeated No. 24, Jil Teichmann, in the fourth round. [58] She also reached the third round at the Premier 5 Cincinnati Open, where she lost a tight match to world No. IBM is already working with American stars Sloane Stephens and Frances Tiafoe -- neither of whom advanced to the third round of this year's U.S. Open -- to test out Coach Advisor, using them to . Now the Grand Slam champion is here to sh. [199] This was her first final and title since 2018. Because Halep has dominated their matches, Stephens has downplayed their rivalry, saying, "It's not a rivalry if you don't beat the person. On the contrary, Stephens has also shown the ability to use her mindset of not worrying about disappointing outcomes to bounce back from injury and poor tournaments. 23, compatriot, and eventual finalist, Coco Gauff. 270 ZARAZUA SHOCKS STEPHENS IN ACAPULCO", "Stephens survives Navarro charge in Monterrey", "WTA Tour: Fifth seed Sloane Stephens shocked by teenager sensation Leylah Fernandez in Monterrey", "WTA and ATP announce further suspension of tennis through June 7", "ATP AND WTA EXTEND TOUR SUSPENSIONS INTO JULY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS", "Canada's Leylah Annie Fernandez upsets Sloane Stephens at Top Seed Open", "Western and Southern Open: Caroline Garcia beats Sloane Stephens, Vondrousova upset", "Serena Williams fights back, routs former champ Sloane Stephens", "Hibino handles Stephens in Strasbourg opener", "Badosa beats Stephens for Roland Garros breakthrough", "Canada's Leylah Annie Fernandez beats Sloane Stephens at Grampians Trophy", "Barty whitewash, Putintseva comeback lead to Australian Open wins", "Doi, Gracheva kick off Phillip Island Trophy with Garcia, Stephens upsets", "Stephens slumps to 0-4 in 2021 after Monterrey Open exit", "Sloane Stephens Breaks 2021 Duck At Miami Open, Svetlana Kuznetsova Loses In First Round", "BIANCA ANDREESCU TRIUMPHS IN MIAMI, AMANDA ANISIMOVA AWAITS", "WTA Charleston: Sloane Stephens upsets Madison Keys", "Spain's Badosa ousts world No. 30 in the world. 44-ranked Puig, she continued. [222], Stephens has played five seasons with World TeamTennis starting in 2009 when she debuted in the league with the New York Buzz, followed by a season each with the Washington Kastles in 2014, the Philadelphia Freedoms in 2017 and 2018, and the New York Empire in 2019. Another opportunity for the both of us. [239][237] She also noted that she has read Serena's autobiography and respects her strong personality. Two days later, the 26-year-old tweeted that she and Murray have reunited. [218] Seeded fourth at the Hobart International, she was defeated in the first round by qualifier, compatriot, and eventual champion, Lauren Davis. [198], In February, Stephens competed at the Abierto Zapopan in Guadalajara, Mexico. [128] This was the first title for the United States since 2000. 83 in the world, and still needed to use a protected ranking to be accepted into the main draw due to the entry deadline being over a month before the event. Stephens also reached a career-high ranking of No. [245] Stephens then won their next two meetings in early 2013, including a first round match at the Australian Open as part of her breakthrough semifinal run at the event. [35][36] Stephens also received wildcards into the US Open qualifying rounds for three consecutive years. [118] Her semifinal was against No. 109, Melinda Czink, while still only 15 years old, but was unable to advance to the main draw in any of these appearances. [6][25], In 2010, Stephens partnered with Tmea Babos to win the doubles title at all three majors in which they participated. He currently coaches Taylor Fritz. doTerra is a company that primarily sells essential oils, while Precision Nutrition provides coaching for diet and exercise. Your email address will not be published. [87] Her first two successful tournaments of the year came at the Premier Mandatory events in March. [154], Outside of the majors, Stephens best performance also came on clay at the Madrid Open, a Premier Mandatory event. [244] Halep won their first encounter in 2012 at the Barcelona Ladies Open. Her second title of the year also came on hardcourt at the Mexican Open. She parted with him after the 2013 season in order to find a full-time coach. 11 in the world,. 109, Maria Kirilenko. This stretch notably included two matches at the year-end Elite Trophy as well as two singles rubbers in the Fed Cup final against Belarus. 15, Jelena Jankovic. Stephens's biggest rivalry is with her close friend and compatriot Madison Keys. [142], For the second straight year, Stephens began the Asian hardcourt season with multiple losses. This score is average compared to other women's tennis players, and rates similarly to fellow Grand Slam tournament winners Justine Henin and Victoria Azarenka. This loss snapped her streak of reaching the second week of every major since a third-round loss at the 2012 US Open. 92 to reach the fourth round. [167] This match garnered a lot of praise from tennis experts. Stephens reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, securing her first match wins at the tournament since 2014. Nonetheless, she finished the year as the youngest player in the top 50 at No. [43][44] After starting the year ranked No. Stephens ended the year with a 411 record and ranked 39. She won the tournament without dropping a set for her first career WTA title. She considered them to be friends when she was starting out on the pro tour, but described Serena as simply a colleague in early 2015. The title brought Stephens back into the top 30. Kamau Murray coaching Sloane Stephens at last year's Open. She achieved a career-best ranking of world No. The American player, who competed in both the U.S. Open and the. "[224] Both players have been ranked in the top 10 by the WTA. [101] Her third and last title of the year came on clay at the higher-level Charleston Open, a low-level Premier event. [138] Nonetheless, this run catapulted her to a career-high ranking of No. She started training at the Evert Tennis Academy, owned by John Evert and run by his sister, Chris Evert. Although she was initially expected to only miss several months, it was later discovered that she would need surgery that would keep her out for the first half of 2017 as well. Her best Grand Slam performance was a quarterfinal loss to Johanna Konta at the French Open, where she could not defend her runner-up finish from the previous season. [45], Stephens started her 2020 season at the Brisbane International. When the WTA Tour resumed tournament play in August, Stephens competed at the first edition of the Top Seed Open. [258][259], Stephens has been perceived as having a nonchalant attitude towards losing matches and striving to meet expectations. Sloane Stephens is a top-rated American female tennis player with a lot to offer and a potential successor to the retired Serena Williams. Her successful year was cut short by a foot injury that kept her out for months. 2, Victoria Azarenka, for the second consecutive year. ", "Stephens Falls to Fellow American Davis in Auckland", "Heather Watson upsets Sloane Stephens 63, 61 at Hobart International", "Australian Open 2015: Sloane Stephens stalls as Victoria Azarenka looks her challenge in the eyes", "Sloane Stephens tops Madison Keys at Miami Open in 'next-generation' match", "Simona Halep gets past Sloane Stephens to reach Miami Open semi-finals", "French Open: Sloane Stephens defeats Venus Williams as it happened", "Serena Williams beats Sloane Stephens to reach French Open last eight", "WTA Eastbourne: Sloane Stephens En Huitime De Finale", "CoCo Vandeweghe overpowering at Wimbledon, pushes into round of 16", "Sloane Stephens wins Citi Open for first WTA title", "CoCo Vandeweghe grants on-court interview during changeover", "Simona Halep will try to break through vs. Sloane Stephens, who knows the feeling", "Sloane Stephens beats Julia Goerges in ASB Classic final", "Kerber Retires With Illness In Charleston, But Take Nothing Away From Stephens", "Stephens wins Third Tournament of 2016 in Charleston", "For at least one post-match embrace Sunday at Wimbledon, 'quality was good', "Sloane Stephens exits, again, in Australian Open 1st round", "Bouchard beats Stephens in Olympic debut at Rio 2016", "Coping With Injury: Inside the Mind of Pro Tennis Player Sloane Stephens", "How Sloane Stephens's Tennis Channel Gig Helped her During Injury Recovery", "After long layoff, Sloane Stephens sees some positives in Wimbledon loss", "No. [3] In March 2010, Stephens qualified for the Indian Wells Open to make her WTA debut a week before turning 17. She was eliminated in the second round by compatriot, seventh seed, and eventual champion, Danielle Collins. Congratulations to all of these ladies! [41] Although she seldom played on the pro tour that year, Stephens decided to turn pro in October following a strong junior season. [241] In 2015, Stephens won the first set of their encounters at the Indian Wells Open and the French Open, but ultimately lost in three sets in both instances. [17], Stephens has worked with Soles4Souls, a charity that collects new and used shoes to give to children in poverty. Although she reached No. At the Auckland Open, Stephens won her first tournament with the two of them together. [213] At the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, she lost in the second round to world No. Keys has said, "Sloane and I, since we were 12 and 14, have constantly been compared to each other. Although she remained in the top 10 for the majority of the year in large part due to ranking points she was defending from the previous year's WTA Finals, she could not match her best performances at the Grand Slam tournaments or other higher-level events. [33], Stephens often plays behind the baseline, relying on her athleticism to defend against her opponent's shots. [72] Her best Grand Slam tournament results of the year came at the French Open and Wimbledon, where she reached the third round at both events. She is one of the few black Americans after the Williams sisters that have been ranked among the Worlds Top 10 female tennis players. She defeated No. [108] At the time of her last WTA event of the year at the end of July, Stephens was ranked No. Nonetheless, the United States won the tie 32 to secure a place in the 2014 World Group. 11 towards the end of 2013, she regressed and stayed outside the top 25 to the end of 2015. According to the Aggression Score Metric, which measures a player's aggression based on how quickly they end points either through a winner, an unforced error, or an opponent's forced error, Stephens has a score of 19.4% which implies that 19.4% of her shots lead to one of those three outcomes. [104], In contrast to previous years where Stephens struggled at smaller tournaments while still doing well at bigger tournaments, she struggled at the Grand Slam tournaments and high-level Premier events in 2016. We aims to be available wherever and whenever you need it. Required fields are marked *. [75] Although Stephens continued to struggle outside of the majors after the US Open, she was named the second alternate for the WTA Tour Championships. From there, she continued her training in Boca Raton, where she trained at Evert Tennis Academy before she made her way to Nick Saviano High-Performance Tennis Academy at 12. . Here are the individuals that have contributed to her growth.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'thetennistime_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_4',152,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thetennistime_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Sloanes first coach was an ex-top 50 tennis player, Francisco Gonzalez, who instructed her at the Sierra Sport and Racquet Club. Input your search keywords and press Enter. "Sloane is in the best physical condition she's been in years," said Nick Saviano, a veteran coach who has long been a mentor to Stephens and watched her victory over Gauff on television.. [263] In June 2012, Stephens switched coaches to David Nainkin in order to try to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. 38. [57], Back in the United States, Stephens played at the Citi Open in late July and made it to her second career WTA semifinal. The two have reuinted this year. She returned from injury in the middle of 2017 and won the US Open singles title in her fifth tournament back. [278], After her US Open victory, Stephens accrued several new sponsors, including Mercedes-Benz. Sloane Stephens had to think outside of the box when it came to staying competition-ready throughout the coronavirus pandemic . Sloane Stephens, Jozy Altidore married on New Year's Day. Murray had spent most of this season coaching Monica Puig, who was informed "at the end of last week" that Murray was moving on, she wrote in a statement toSporting News. This tennis match is between Heather Watson and Sloane Stephens. She lost in the first round of the Citi Open and the Rogers Cup before a second-round loss last week in Cincinnati, a disappointing stretch of matches entering what has been her most successful major tournament. Stephens was down a set and a break early in the second set, but came from behind to pull off a huge upset. [179] At the Italian Open, she fell in the final round of qualifying to Tamara Zidanek. [11] Although she started out at the Evert Tennis Academy for a year working with John and Chris Evert, she then moved to the Nick Saviano High Performance Tennis Academy, where she stayed for several years. [23] Mladenovic ended up winning the tournament, and would also defeat Stephens in their next encounter at the Wimbledon quarterfinals. She lost her first two matches back, one to compatriot Alison Riske at Wimbledon, and the other to No. [42][17] Her only other WTA Tour win that year came at the Swedish Open in July. Othmane Garma, right, and Coach Kamau Murray, have helped Sloane Stephens regain her form after a number of injuries. Emma Hruby . Their relationship ended in 2012; David Nainkin. However, she was able to produce her best result at the tournament, making it to the final. [204] In Rome, she was eliminated in the first round by Ekaterina Alexandrova. He has won a total of 38 ITF titles, including 16 Singles and 22 Doubles. Stephens started her clay-court season at the Charleston Open. Their two biggest matches came in 2018, both of which were three set finals. [123][124] She also became the lowest-ranked US Open champion ever, and the fifth-lowest at any Grand Slam tournament. [246] Both of these wins came before Halep entered the top ten in 2014. 37 in the world. However, she got a lucky loser spot into the main draw. In Murray's absence, Stephens had worked with Sven Groeneveld for three months. Emma Hruby Dec 22, 2022. [63][64] This was the first top-ten victory of Stephens's career and made her much more prominent. View. [78] Her next successful tournament came in March at the Indian Wells Open. [34] She would lose in qualifying the next two years as well. She attended several WTA events in the United States including Indian Wells, the Miami, and Charleston, where she interviewed fellow tennis players and also provided analysis. After Stephens's victory against her at the tournament, Serena commented, "I made you," in a tweet believed to be directed at Stephens and did not speak to her younger compatriot until at least May. [72] Nonetheless, her best result of the season came at the French Open, where she lost to No. With these results, Stephens climbed back into the top 100 of the WTA rankings. [182] She lost in her fourth-round match to eventual champion Barbora Krejkov. Stephens also earned acareer-high rank of No. [205] Seeded sixth at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, she was stunned in the first round by world No. [188] Ranked 66 at the US Open, she won a tight three-set first-round match over 2017 finalist Madison Keys. Stephens' coach, Chicago native Kamau Murray, will coach . Stephens started her season at the first edition of the Grampians Trophy. [70] Stephens continued her Grand Slam tournament success at Wimbledon by making it to the quarterfinals, again without defeating a seeded opponent.