Stephens arrived
If you had said last month that Sloane Stephens would be the United States Open champion, you’d have been laughed off as an ignorant fool. Back then, she was ranked 957th in the world, fresh off two first- round defeats, including in Wimbledon following an 11- month break from active competition due to injury. Yet, that’s precisely what she did, gaining momentum on the strength of semifinalround appearances in Toronto and Cincinnati before heading to New York.
Not that you didn’t have cause for confidence in Stephens’ capacity to run the table at Flushing Meadows. After all, she possessed the kind of transcendent talent that put her in the spotlight when she checked her amateur status in 2011. That said, her record through her first three seasons as a pro was middling at best. And when she finally looked on her way to living up to expectations last year, she wound up needing surgery to repair a stress fracture in her left foot. In other words, she didn’t exactly bear the credentials befitting of a pretournament favorite.
If there’s anything Stephens didn’t lack despite all her troubles, however, its self- assurance, and that’s probably what made you believe in her capacity to claim the last fortnight. Certainly, it’s what she relied on in surviving four threeset matches en route to the title, among them a Roundof-Eight third-set tie-break against Anastasija Sevastova and a semifinal-round thriller against ninth-seed Venus Williams, who at one instance was two points from victory.
Considering how Stephens got noticeably better as the US Open progressed, her triumph in the final, however lopsided, was no longer a surprise. She proved to be a picture of calm, with no trace of nerves that seemingly overwhelm those unfamiliar with pressure from the sport’s grandest stages. She rose to the occasion, and though her ranking will be in the twenties when the Women’s Tennis Association updates its list this week, you can contend with your head held high that she deserves to be lumped with the best of the best — and for some time to come. She has
arrived, and how.
COURTSIDE ANTHONY L. CUAYCONG Stephens proved to be a picture of calm in the final, with no trace of nerves that seemingly overwhelm those unfamiliar with pressure from the sport’s grandest stages. She rose to the occasion, and though her ranking will be in the twenties when the Women’s Tennis Association updates its list this week, you can contend with your head held high that she deserves to be lumped with the best of the best — and for some time to come. She has arrived, and how.