MELBOURNE—Tennis classics come in all shapes and sizes. On Sunday Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, two pros from different countries and of similar ages, put each other through a supreme test of skill and stamina; their round-of-16 matchup was a five-hour exhibition of the sport at its finest. Compared to that, Sloane Stephens’ 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 quarterfinal win over Serena Williams today was a very different type of epic. It wasn’t about excellence, and it won’t be remembered for its high quality of play. This match between fellow African-American women a decade apart in age was a psychological drama as only tennis can stage them.
It had been billed in the press as mentor vs. protégé. First we heard that Serena was Sloane’s idol growing up. Then we heard about the poster Stephens had of her on her wall, and the way that Serena had helped her, only to show her the back of her hand in their first match, two weeks ago in Brisbane. It took Chris Clarey of the New York Times to remind us today that Sloane hadn’t originally been inspired to pick up a racquet because of Serena, after all. A little later, Matt Cronin of TENNIS.com reported that the two had met for the first time only a year ago, for four minutes, and that Stephens didn’t think Serena had any idea who she was.
“I always love watching her play,” said Stephens, who couldn’t remember the first time she had seen Serena on TV, “but I never tried to copycat or anything like that.”
“Honestly, I’ve never really given her advice,” Serena said.
On camera, their handshake at the end looked like a touching moment of respect; in the future it might even be described as a passing of the American tennis torch. But according to Stephens it wasn’t anything special. Asked what she said to Serena, Sloane shrugged and said, “Good match, well played. I say the same thing every time. She just said good match. I don’t even remember, honestly.”
Still, there really was a good story behind this match, and it involved more than these two women. A lot of tennis in recent years has been about young players not measuring up to the game’s stars. We saw it again this week when 31-year-old Roger Federer straight-setted Bernard Tomic and Milos Raonic, each a decade or so younger than him, in successive rounds. On both the men’s and women’s sides, we’ve wondered for a long time when the next generation would finally show up. While Serena was hurt today—she aggravated a back injury in the second set—19-year-old Sloane Stephens showed up, and measured up. We haven’t felt the shock of the new for a long time. It was nice to be reminded of what kind of buzz it can create.