Sloane Stephens wins Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at 2025 ESPYs

Sloane Stephens lit up the 2025 ESPY Awards on Wednesday, becoming the first tennis player to receive the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award for her philanthropic work with her eponymous Sloane Stephens Foundation.

“I’m so honored to be here tonight, to accept this award in the name of someone who meant to much to all of us,” Stephens said of Ali, for whom the award was named in 2017.

The 2017 US Open champion launched the Sloane Stephens Foundation in 2013 with the goal of helping expose underprivileged youth to tennis in Compton and South Florida, lowering barriers to access a traditionally expensive sport. According to the Sloane Stephens Foundation website, the foundation has impacted over 10,000 children across the country.

“It’s for the kids who deserve to be seen, the ones who just need a safe place to grow, and the communities that shaped me,” Stephens wrote of the foundation on Instagram. “I know I was put here to do more than hit a tennis ball and while I’ve done that with pride, I’m most fulfilled by the impact we’re building beyond the game.”

Attending the ESPY Awards with Stephens was Mia Parker, one of the beneficiaries of the Sloane Stephens Foundation.

“When I first met Mia, she was nine years old, this tiny powerhouse with a backhand like she’d been playing forever,” Stephens recalled in her acceptance speech. “What I didn’t know then was that we were starting a journey together.”

With the help of the Sloane Stephens Foundation, Parker was able to compete in national junior tournaments and will attend Clark Atlanta University on a tennis scholarship.

“She really changed everything,” said Parker. “If it wasn’t for the foundation, I wouldn’t have been here at all.”

A former world No. 3, Stephens has been off the court since February, playing a WTA 500 tournament in Mérida, Mexico.