Stephens ties retirement to second Grand Slam title
In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series “29 Black Stories in 29 Days.” We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth annual installment of the series.
If you want to understand one of the places tennis player Sloane Stephens got her desire to help others, look no further than her grandparents, Doc and Glo.
Her grandfather Dr. Noel Smith emigrated from Trinidad to study Medicine at Howard University. Her grandmother Glo served as the president of the National Council of Negro Women. The organization, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, was dedicated to improving the lives of Black women.
Both grandparents believed in giving back to the community that gave to them and they did just that. He was an OB-GYN. Her grandmother was heavily involved in their community. They taught her to help when you can, and that message Stephens carries with her today.
“I want to leave a legacy in tennis but I want to do more,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “I want to do more than just say, ‘I play tennis.’ ”
For the third consecutive year, Stephens is partnering with Bold.com for the $30,000 Sloane Stephens Doc & Glo Scholarship. It’s for students studying medicine or attending an HBCU.
Stephens entered the sport’s big stage after she beat Serena Williams in the semis of the 2013 Australian Open. She won the US Open in 2017.
In “Cinema Sessions with Sloane Stephens” she said if she won another Grand Slam event, she’d retire from tennis.
“There’s more, I feel like there’s more,” Stephens says on the show. “But let me tell you this, if I win a Grand Slam, I’m never playing tennis again. That would be the last, I’ll be like: ‘I’ll see you guys never, I’m out.’ ”
Was she joking, I asked?
“Oh no, I was serious,” she said. “Obviously I’m getting older. I’m 30. Do I think I’m going to win the French Open? I don’t know. Is it possible? Maybe. But like, I just think that I’ve got a lot of tennis (left) and I think that’s a good goal (winning another Grand Slam event).
“I always say it’s nice to have something to look forward to. So yeah, I think that would obviously be an amazing feat if I did do that. It would be nice to finish on a good note.”
Stephens has already hit that note by following in Doc and Glo’s footsteps.