A fly came towards Sloane Stephens. She recoiled, squealed, and dived out of her chair onto the floor.
This was a US Open 2017 press conference, by which point the journalists in the room were laughing and the American star – the tournament’s eventual champion – was out of camera shot.
She got up, flinched some more, attempted to kill the insect with a shoe, shuddered and then tried to turn her attention back to the journalist – but had forgotten the question they’d asked.
You can watch it in the video above. Apart from Rafa coming off his chair in this bizarre cramping episode, we can’t recall a player hitting the deck quite like this …
All in a day at a Stephens media conference.
They’re usually amusing affairs; this was not the first time Stephens had everybody talking about her performance in press.
So we’ve gathered some other highlights from throughout her career to honour Sloane Stephens – the press conference queen.
Stephen’s reaction to receiving on court her US Open champion’s cheque of $US3.7 million was priceless. She discussed it in her post-match press conference.
That would be Genie Bouchard, whom Stephens teamed up with in doubles at the recent Citi Open in Washington DC. As well as describing how they got together, she managed to fire a barb at the tournament in response to its well-documented gender-biased scheduling.
What’s the trick to dealing with online hate and zealous fans? The Twitter block button. Stephens incurred the wrath of Serena Williams fans with some ill-advised remarks about how Serena has treated her in the aftermath of their Australian Open 2013 quarterfinal, a match Stephens won. Here’s how she dealt with them:
Just looking at Sloane in this press conference might make you laugh. She explained how she came to make this unusual choice of accessory …
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