What a difference a year makes. Sloane Stephens entered the 2017 US Open as the WTA’s No. 83-ranked player, trading a protective boot for a protected ranking after a left-foot injury caused her to miss 11 months of action. Her ranking had dropped as low as No. 957 earlier in the summer, and the New York showpiece was just her fifth tournament back after surgery.
Her Cinderella story carried on past midnight in the city that never sleeps, and it ended not with a glass slipper but with a silver Tiffany & Co. trophy as the lowest-ranked US Open singles champion ever. The inspiring story was enough to earn her WTA Comeback Player of the Year honors for 2017.
Now, the world No. 3 is more Goliath than David, as she enters New York as the top-ranked American woman for the first time in her US Open career. But despite her career-high ranking, Stephens’ last 12 months weren’t all fit for a fairytale.
After winning the first Grand Slam title of her career, Stephens did not win a match for the rest of 2017, struggling to an 0-6 record that included a pair of losses in both the Fed Cup final – which Team USA still won, 3-2, over Belarus – and the WTA Elite Trophy.
Her woes continued into 2018, and her losing streak piled up to eight when she lost to Shuai Zhang of China at the Australian Open. The slump led many of the same pundits who exalted her US Open triumph to wonder whether she was a one-Slam wonder. Stephens, on the other hand, was never concerned.
“Tennis is definitely a roller coaster,” she said after her Australian Open exit. “But I have learned to not panic. It will be OK. There are always going to be times when it's really tough, and there will be times when you're on an extreme high.”
Amidst the journey that was her 2017 season, Stephens’ injury lay-off gave her some valuable perspective regarding life on the WTA Tour.
"I think winning the US Open, it's just never going to be enough for certain people – people who talk about [tennis] and you guys who write it about it," she told the media. "But as long as it's enough for me and I feel good that I have done what I can to progress and do whatever I can for my personal career, that's OK.”
“Tennis is definitely a roller coaster, but I have learned to not panic. It will be OK. There are always going to be times when it's really tough, and there will be times when you're on an extreme high.”
Stephens finally put an end to her slide in February, more than five months after her US Open final victory. Still, the American could only muster three match wins on the North American hard courts of Acapulco, Mexico, and Indian Wells, Calif.
With a 3-10 record since her US Open title, she was still a long way from the heights of her New York glory. But like in 2017, there was still time for a comeback. If her 2017 US Open run was lightning, it struck twice in South Florida, as Stephens sparked into top form to win the Miami Open in her home state.
Back at her relentless best, Stephens defeated four Grand Slam champions – Garbiñe Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko – in succession to win her first career WTA Premier title.
That form carried over to the French Open, where Stephens made a spirited run to the final before falling to world No. 1 Simona Halep, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
A few months later, as the US Open Series began, Stephens faced the pressure of defending WTA ranking points for the first time in 2018. Her surprise run to the 2017 Rogers Cup semifinals, in just her third tournament back from injury, proved to be a springboard for her eventual US Open success.
This time around, she went one better, reaching the final in Montreal, where she once again lost to Halep in three sets. While Stephens won’t call Halep a rival (“It’s not a rivalry if you don’t beat the person,” she said), she is plotting her revenge.
“Eventually I’m going to get her, and hopefully it will be soon,” she said at Friday’s US Open Media Day.
The two could meet in the semifinals this year, though a pair of other American champions, Serena and Venus Williams, could get to the Romanian first.
As this year's defending champ, Stephens was on hand for Thursday’s draw ceremony, though she had no interest in looking at the draw.
“Honestly, I never do draw ceremonies," she said. “I had to. When you win the US Open, you have to do the draw ceremony.”
It was just one of many extracurricular activities for Stephens during her year-long reign as Queen of New York.
“There's always a lot of extra things that happen after winning,” she said. “Obviously, an American winning the US Open is pretty big. Definitely a lot of things to do, a lot less down days for myself, but that comes with the territory. I think I handled it the best that I could. I've just made the most of it, tried to keep my tennis first. That's really all you can do.”
If she wins the title again this year, no one can say they didn't see it coming.
