Sloane Stephens Just Won the U.S. Open in an Incredible Comeback
Just a few days after the U.S. Open’s all-American semifinals—no, really, all four women who made the cut were American—Sloane Stephens has won the championship at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens. For Stephens, the victory was undoubtedly an incredible comeback: she was ranked at 957th in women’s tennis just last month, according to the New York Times, and she only returned to the game in July after foot surgery.
On Thursday, the unseeded Stephens beat Venus Williams in the semifinals to advance to the final matches. On Saturday, she won against No. 15-seeded Madison Keys 6-3 and 6-0 in the finals to take the title. (Keys beat CoCo Vandeweghe in her own semi-final round.)
Stephens and Keys are close pals: they have a long history together and support each other like crazy, which makes this win even more sweet. According to the Times, they played tennis together as juniors before going on to compete on Fed Cup and Olympic teams.
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They also joked around during the trophy ceremony: Keys good-naturedly pretended to take Stephens’ $3.7-million check for herself.
Both athletes brought their own weaknesses and strengths to the match. Stephens, who draws on her quickness and punch in tennis, has been recovering from that foot surgery. Keys, who the Times calls “arguably the most powerful player in women’s tennis,” had two operations on her left wrist in the past 10 months.
“If there’s someone I had to lose to today, I’m glad it’s her,” Keys said, according to the Guardian. “If you told me two months ago I’d be holding a finalist trophy at the US Open, I’d be really happy and proud of myself.”
Prior to this year, Venus’s sister Serena Williams, one of the greatest athletes of our time, had been the only American woman to make it to the tournament’s finals in the last decade. She, of course, is currently on maternity leave with her new baby girl.
Stephens is just 24, which hopefully means she has a long career ahead of her: Venus is 37, and Serena is 35, and those two ladies are still killing it.
“I should just retire now,” Stephens said at the trophy ceremony, according to the Times. “I told Maddy, I’m never going to be able to top this. I mean talk about a comeback.”
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