Sloane Stephens Has Kept Believing In Herself

Written by: Staff on 2nd July 2013

Sloane Stephens Has Kept Believing In Herself

epa03769796 Sloane Stephens of the USA returns to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico during their fourth round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 01 July 2013. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

Sloane Stephens was in a deep funk during the late winter and spring. She had over extended herself by doing too many media and sponsor appearances after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and quickly grew mentally tired. Then she criticized Serena Williams publicly in a variety of publications and was forced to backtrack, which wasn’t easy for the headstrong 20 year old.

Entering Roland Garros, she had a 7-8 record post Australia. She looked disinterested and was lacking confidence. But since she entered the doors of another Grand Slam, her spirits have picked up. She reached the fourth round in Paris and on Monday reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a three-set victory over Monica Puig. She kept the faith through the hard times and now she finds herself as the only American remaining in the Wimbledon singles draw. Twenty-five Americans entered, but Stephens is the only one who put her survival instincts to proper use.

“I think just believing in myself,” said Stephens, who will face 15th seed Marion Bartoli. “I mean, it was a bad time. I think just knowing that I am a good tennis player. I’m top 20 in the world for a reason. I didn’t like all of a sudden snap my fingers and I got good. I put in a lot of work, took a lot of sweat, like bad hair days, all that other stuff, to get to where I was. I realize that I just couldn’t let that go to waste. I had to get back to work and just, you know, start working again. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I was that good. It was like, I’m letting myself down. I’m not doing what I need to be doing. I needed to refocus, regroup.”

Stephens has been grinding out wins in London, some which were very pretty, but she seems to have a strong inner belief that she can come back from the brink. She was being out-played by Puig until the final game of the second set when she mentally faced the 19-year-old down. She put aside the suspension of her third round match against Petra Cetkovska and the loss of the second set 6-0 and scratched her way to victory.

“I have to be patient with myself.” Stephens said. “I think just learning how to compete and like hanging in there and just battling, never giving up, just knowing that even like the little things, when you’re down 30‑love in a game, 40‑love in a game, you can always come back. The game is never over until the line judge is like, Okay, it’s 6-3 6-2, or whatever it is. I think for myself, it’s learning how to really battle, staying out there on the court, learning how to compete.”

Stephens has reached the second week of all three Grand Slams this year, bettering any of the other younger players’ results. She has said that Roland Garros is her favorite tournament as she loves to play on clay, but she is getting a feel for the grass too. Watching Wimbledon sparked her interest in the sport. She’s come a long way since then.

Everyone loves this tournament,” she said. “This is just like it’s a dream to be here. Somebody asked me the other day my first experience watching Wimbledon. It was when I watched Venus play Davenport [in 2005]. They had like that epic final. I was not good at tennis then obviously. I was a nonfactor. So it’s crazy just thinking that I went from watching that to actually here in the quarters. It’s definitely crazy, but it’s good.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: American tennis news, Sloane Stephens, Sports, Tennis News, Wimbledon Championships