Stephens wins friendly final
Keys can’t fight nerves or first-time major champion
“I should just retire now. I’m never going to be able to top this.” SLOANE STEPHENS AFTER HER FIRST GRAND SLAM TITLE
Tears mixed with sweat in a poignant embrace at the net that went on and on and on.
It was unclear who was hanging on to whom and which woman was reluctant to release the other: Madison Keys, the defeated, or Sloane Stephens, the victor.
Best friends. “Bestest,” declared Stephens following her maiden Grand Slam title, a formidable display of almost pitch-perfect tennis, showcasing the 24-yearold’s flexibility and poise and shot-making wits, talents never before quite silhouetted as they have been here, at the U.S. Open.
Up to her player’s box Stephens scrambled after Keys netted a forehand on match point — on Sloane’s fifth break point won — as a tennis bouncer cleared a path for the new American champion. Giddy hugs with her coach Kamau Murray. Tender hugs with mom Sybil Smith, who put her 11-year-old daughter into a tennis academy, ignoring forecasts the girl would likely never be more than a Division II player.
And look where she’s standing Saturday, in the winner’s spotlight at Arthur Ashe Stadium, with a cheque for $3.7 million pocketed and holding a trophy aloft.
“That’s a lot of money!” Stephens exclaimed when the cheque was placed in her hand but the lucre really did feel like an afterthought, as if Slam riches had never really crossed her mind. “I should just retire now. I’m never going to be able to top this.”
By then even Keys was grinning, having wiped the tears from her mesmerizing green eyes, making a pretty little runner-up’s speech. “If there’s someone I had to lose to today, I’m glad it’s her.”
Awaiting the ceremony, Stephens had left her chair and gone to sit next to Keys. She’d consoled, they’d chattered, giggled a bit too, putting their heads together behind a towel.
They both would admit, later, feeling overwhelmed with nerves before the match. It was Keys who suffered most because of the willies.
“I definitely think my play today came down to nerves and I just don’t think I handled the occasion perfectly,” said Keys.
Suggested Stephens: “I was just fortunate to be able to hold it together for a little bit longer.”
It was clear, though, once the trauma had been absorbed, that Keys could survive this 6-3, 6-0 lambasting, that the lopsided outcome would not entirely define her 2017 U.S. Open experience, a first-time major final for her as well.
Stephens had told her, in their net-clasp: “I wish there could be a draw. I wish we could have both won.”
Two admirable young women, both coming off surgery in the past year, neither expecting to be the last pair standing — though each may have dreamed of it, however insistent their denials.
Keys flew back from the French Open in May for a second surgery to her wrist; Stephens rehabbed for 11 months after surgery for a fractured foot that put her in a wheelchair first and then a “peg-leg” cast, able to hit balls only when sitting on a chair on the court.
Her comeback road to victory— from a world ranking of 957 just five weeks ago into the top 20 when the new rankings are released Monday — actually began at the Rogers Cup in Toronto in August, a semifinal acquittal that was duplicated a week later in Cincinnati.
But nobody was expecting this, the 24-year-old Stephens knocking off Venus Williams, the world No. 9, in the process, drawing to a close that legend’s bid for a third U.S. Open title.
In situational tennis terms, it was quite a wipeout by the unseeded Stephens over her longtime friend. They have known each other since juniors, both South Floridians. They hang out together on tour; they texted each other furiously with mutual consolation when both missed the Australian Open because of their injuries. Stephens, at 24, is two years older than Keys but the latter, with her power game and dominant serve, seeded 15th here, was considered closer to making that big-time breakthrough. Both had progressed to a Slam semi only once before — the Australian Open for Stephens in 2013, the same for Keys in 2015.
No American not named Williams had won any singles Grand Slam since Jennifer Capriati took the Aussie in 2002. And oddly, given their long history, Stephens and Keys had squared off only once before, in Miami two years ago, a 6-4, 6-2 rout for Stephens.
This one out-routed that one and doubtless the poor performance will haunt Keys for some time. But they’ve plenty of time ahead of them, a rivalry that will surely deepen over years to come as the women’s game transitions to a younger generation.
Keys, who began the match with a brace of aces, was broken twice in the first set and didn’t even get a point on Stephens’ serve until the sixth game. Stephens didn’t commit an unforced error through eight games. It didn’t seem like it could get much worse for the five-foot-10 Keys and surely she’d reset in the second to make a match out of it.
Instead, Stephens broke her immediately and repeatedly. Probably the match was irreversibly branded with an “SS” in the fourth game of the second when, after clawing back from love-40, Keys double-faulted to go down a double break.
In the next game, it was Stephens down 0-40 but Keys couldn’t keep a foot on her opponent’s throat. Stephens saved three break points on a backhand winner, forehand winner and forehand volley to cap off the longest rally of the match. Suddenly, on a netted backhand, Keys was staring at 5-0.
Keys made a valiant attempt at extending the match, even a smidge, twice staving off match point on her service in the final game before netting another forehand.
On the opposite side of the net, Stephens stood momentarily shock still, as if in disbelief. “Wow,” she thought to herself. “How insane. I just won the U.S. Open. Like, wow.” Then she beamed and made for her box. Not in it, on this afternoon, was long-time boyfriend Jozy Altidore — they’ve known each other since fifth grade — who was otherwise engaged scoring a couple of goals for Toronto FC.
He found out about his girl’s triumph at halftime. “I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “It’s special.” (Stephens, when she heard of it: “He should have scored a hat trick.”)
She revealed she had spent the night before the match bored, twiddling her thumbs and leafing through the Auto Trader while everybody tip-toed around her. At one point, coach Murray used a laundry-delivery pretense to come up to her room and check out Stephens’ state of mind.
Stephens was stunned to discover that she’d made only six unforced errors in the match. “Shut the front door! Oh my God, that’s a stat.”
Then she almost literally floated out of the room.
Keys, by the way, said she totally intended to attend Stephens’ victory party later Saturday night. “She can buy me drinks. All of the drinks.”