Victory Lap: Since winning US Open, Stephens has had drama-filled year

WATCH—Tennis Channel Live talks Sloane Stephens' US Open title defense:

“Winning a Grand Slam, everyone just expects you to win every tournament after that,” Sloane Stephens told NBC Sports this spring, with her customary mix of blithe irony and disarming honesty. “I did the complete opposite. I literally lost like eight matches in a row or something crazy like that.”

By now, doing the “complete opposite” of what champions are supposed to do has become second nature for Stephens. At 19, in 2013, she beat Serena Williams on her way to the Australian Open semifinals, rose to No. 12 in the rankings, and was widely proclaimed to be the future of U.S. tennis. Instead of riding that wave to the top, though, Stephens was engulfed by the expectations it created. She spent the next three years outside the Top 30, and failed to reach another major semifinal until 2017.

Stephens finally fulfilled those expectations—and went beyond what most people thought was possible—by winning the US Open last year. But her path to sudden success was just as surprising and unconventional as her retreat had been. After undergoing foot surgery and being sidelined for 11 months, she began the summer hard-court swing ranked No. 957. Four tournaments later, she had won her first major title and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

“There’s no pressure on me,” Stephens in the middle of her meteoric rise. “I’m just going and having fun. I think most of it is I’m so excited to be on the court and to be able to play again, that I kind of have, like, a little extra oomph.”

Even in victory, of course, Sloane did it her way. Rather than celebrate after the US Open final, she consoled her opponent and friend Madison Keys, with a long hug at the net. Rather than pretend she didn’t care about the $3.7 million she had just won, she stared at the check goggle-eyed. “Did you see the check that lady handed me?” Stephens asked a reporter who wondered if she was hungry to win more majors. “Man, if that doesn’t make you want to play tennis, I don’t know what will.”

Perhaps the only predictable aspect of Stephens’ last 12 months was what she did after her US Open triumph: as she said, she lost her next eight matches. For most players, success breeds confidence, which leads to more success. For Stephens, a big-match player who won her first six finals, success at a major led to a loss of focus at the comparatively minor events that followed. After winning at Flushing Meadows, the last thing she seemed to want to do was fly to Wuhan, China, a few days later for a tournament.

In 2018, though, Stephens has had a new perspective on her latest swoon. By winning in New York, she had proven to the world—and more importantly, to herself—that all the talk of her Slam-winning talent, the talk of her grabbing the U.S.-tennis baton from Venus and Serena Williams, hadn’t been hype or hot air. Now she knew she could play with anyone. In Kamau Murray, she also had a mentor she trusted. Murray, Stephens has said, is the first coach who knows her well enough not to crowd her, not to smother her; to let her be comfortable, let her be herself, let her succeed on her own time, in her own way.

“Everyone is so depressed and so down,” a smiling Stephens said of the U.S. media’s long-faced reaction to her first-round loss at the Australian Open in January. “It’s not tough times. It’s just a learning experience. It’s a new season. Luckily, there’s time to get in the best shape and make sure that I’m ready for my next tournaments...I’m going to have the best Instagram picture when I finally snap this losing streak.”

Stephens was right to be so sure of herself. Two months later, she beat four fellow major champions—Garbiñe Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko—on her way to the second-biggest title of her career, at the Miami Open. Two months after that, Sloane looked as if she was on her way to an even more important victory, at the French Open. After cruising past three up-and-coming opponents—Anett Kontaveit, Daria Kasatkina, and Madison Keys—she led Simona Halep in the final 6-3, 2-0.

By that point, Stephens had turned her game into a seemingly impenetrable fortress, one that blended power and speed, offense and defense, until there was nowhere for her opponents to go with the ball. Down a set and a break, Halep was ready to wave the white flag. “It’s gone, it’s over,” the Romanian said to herself.

But Sloane had another surprise in store. Just when she seemed to have found a zen zone where nothing could touch her—let alone beat her—she stopped moving and started missing. Halep made the most of her opportunity, and soon the tables had turned completely. By the third set, the Romanian was the impenetrable wall, and the American was the one flailing futilely at it.

“I didn’t recalculate,” Stephens told NBC afterward. “I should have changed my game when I noticed she was changing hers.”

And that—developing a Plan B—may be the next step for Stephens as she heads back to New York to defend her US Open title. She has won a major on hard courts, and reached a major final on clay. She has cracked the Top 5, and embraced the big stage. But Stephens has often been at the mercy of how well, or poorly, her opponents have played. With her speed, strength and court sense, she can afford to let the game come to her. If an opponent is nervous, as they often are in finals, Stephens has success; but when Halep raised her game in Paris, she couldn’t find an answer.

The thing about winning the US Open, though, is Stephens knows she has an answer inside her.

Or, Sloane put it in Paris: “I think when you’re calm and you’re just relaxed and you don’t panic and you just stay steady, you allow yourself to work through obstacles and adversity or anything that might happen on the court that you weren’t prepared for.”

Whatever Stephens’ next step is, we’ll know she’ll take it in her own way, and in her own time.