Stephens altering perceptions as US Open looms

Since Sloane Stephens’ emergence as a force in the sport, she has developed a reputation – that she doesn’t particularly care about tennis.

Perhaps it stems from her inconsistent results from week to week on tour. Or an apparent absence of competitive fire, drive and desire. Or her superficial – bordering at times on indifferent or dismissive – persona when fronting the media.

Whether you believe the reputation is deserved or not, there is no doubt it has followed her around ever since she burst to prominence with her run to the Australian Open semifinals in 2013. And it only intensified when she won the US Open last year – then endured a five-month, eight-match losing streak.

Yet perhaps that reputation is beginning to change.

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At the US Open draw ceremony on Thursday in New York, co-host Tracy Austin, a former world No.1, pointed to Stephens consistency throughout 2018 as a reason she may not feel as much pressure when defending her title. (The reasoning: should she bomb at Flushing Meadows, her ranking won’t tumble too much because she has picked up plenty of points elsewhere).

Stephens laughed off that suggestion. “There is so much pressure,” she replied. “I’m gonna be nervous – my pits are gonna be sweating, it’s gonna be terrible. But it’s gonna be so much fun! I’m looking forward to it.

“I’m trying really hard to make it to Singapore (for the WTA Finals). I’m like, come on, more points.”

A person who doesn’t care about tennis would probably not respond in this way. Firstly, if they don’t care, they don’t really get nervous. And they certainly wouldn’t relish the prospect of extending their already-long season with a trip to the year-end championships.

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Austin is, for the most part, correct. Barring a lacklustre first-round exit at Wimbledon, Stephens has been a fairly dependable winner on tour this year. She triumphed in Miami, appeared in finals at Roland Garros and Montreal, and reached the last 16 at Madrid, Rome and Cincinnati.

Since losing to Daria Kasatkina in the third round at Indian Wells, Stephens has gone 24-9. Basically, whenever she has played at one of the tour’s bigger events, she has been a factor.

Sloane Stephens (L) chats to Tracy Austin (centre) at the US Open draw ceremony in New York; Getty Images

It is a position far removed from October last year, when she returned to the court for her first match after her US Open breakthrough and won just four games in an opening-round loss to Wang Qiang in Wuhan.

Reporter Linda Pearce, who was at the tournament, wrote at the time for Tennismash: “Stephens arrived (for her media conference) promptly after her 6-2 6-2 loss to Wang … before eventually departing with a breezy “toodle-oo” that left no-one particularly charmed.”

Fast forward eight months. A few days after her French Open final loss to Simona Halep, Stephens responded to criticism of her apparent indifference to defeats.

“Everyone’s always, like, ‘You don’t show that you care.’ Is that because I’m not banging my racquet? Because I’m not yelling?” she said in an interview with American Way magazine.“I think people forget that we’re human, and everyone’s allowed to have a life.

“Sometimes tennis is just not fun.”

She is not be the first player to think that, or even say it. But increasingly, one gets the sense she is becoming increasingly comfortable with her position as a top player and enjoying more the process of travelling and competing each week.

At the Australian Open, she spoke of her struggles with adjusting to life in a brighter spotlight since her US Open triumph. “You guys are tweeting about me more. Everyone is talking about me more,” she said. “I think it’s always a tough transition … it’s a little bit overwhelming.”

If that was tough, how was she going to feel when she returned to the site of her 2017 successes, and defending all those points she earned with semifinal runs in Canada and Cincinnati and then by going all the way to the title in New York?

Just fine, apparently. In Montreal she played flawless tennis, not dropping a set en route to the final and then pushing Halep in one of the matches of the season in the decider. She eventually fell 7-6(6) 3-6 6-4 in a match spanning two hours and 41 minutes.

"When you play an awesome point and you guys erupt, I get chills in my body"

Runner-Up @SloaneStephens thanks the crowd following an amazing @CoupeRogers final! pic.twitter.com/Gb8U3db3RL

— WTA (@WTA) August 12, 2018

The emotional speech that Stephens gave in the aftermath was proof of just how much she enjoys competing, and just how much she cares about the outcome.

“Playing tennis is very difficult, but competition is so much more fun when you can play in front of a crowd like you guys,” she said during the trophy presentation. “When you play an awesome point and you guys literally erupt and I get chills in my body, I think that’s the epitome of competition.

“Even though I lost today I literally left everything on the court. Honestly, I love playing the game of tennis and being out here this afternoon with you guys for two-and-a-half hours, it was a blast.”

Coach Kamau Murray, who has worked with Stephens for three years, believed it was one of the best performances he had witnessed from his talented charge. “At 5-2 (down) in the third, she could have just said, you know what, it’s good, it wasn’t my day. She could have backed off and just thrown in the towel, and she didn’t,” he said.

Kamau Murray on Sloane Stephens' emotional reaction to her finals loss to Simona Halep in Montreal: pic.twitter.com/LPT4ATYRmS

— The Body Serve (@TheBodyServe) August 15, 2018

“I wanted to cry for her, because I think from an effort level, a concentration level, from an intensity level, it was probably top.”

On Monday, she will begin the process of trying to top it at the US Open.