Sloane Stephens, who slumped to a 7-8 record in between reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open and the fourth round of Roland Garros, admits that she lost confidence in herself. No. 17 seed Stephens reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, where she will face 2007 finalist Marion Bartoli.
"I think just believing in myself," she replied when asked how she turned things around. "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.”