Sloane Stephens became a household name in the tennis world two years ago, when she shockingly reached the Australian Open quarterfinals as a 19-year-old and had to meet idol Serena Williams. Stephens was billed as the future of American tennis and proved it by taking out the then-#3 seed in three incredible sets of tennis.
Stephens went on to lose in the semifinal to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka, but the tennis world was put on notice. Sloane Stephens would be a player to watch out for.
Since then, the world was still been watching. Stephens has not fallen off the map per se. She always seems to be kind of there, floating on the periphery of the top players but never really doing anything with it. In her eight Slams since that Australian Open, she has reached the second week six times (and lost in the first round twice). But she has never been to another Slam semifinal. In fact, she has never reached the semifinals of a Premier tournament or the final of any tour-level WTA tournament.
Stephens has been viewed as in a bit of a funk for the past year and her ranking has dropped outside the top 30. #40 in the World heading into this tournament, Stephens’ talent is obviously still there. She has just had struggles in random occasions this year. But the raw talent was on full display in Roland Garros on Monday.
Serena Williams, on the other hand, has gotten off to slow starts several times this tournament. She lost the first set of her second-round match to Anna-Lena Friedsam, not playing well at all in the process. She also lost the first set to Victoria Azarenka in the third round, though that was more due to her opponents’ superior play. Still, when she turned things on from the second set onwards, Serena controlled the match.
This match looked very similar to the Azarenka match to start. Stephens raced out to a 4-1 lead with some incredible play. After she held for 5-1, it looked like Serena gave up on the set. A very poor game later and in just 23 minutes Serena had lost a very rare (for her) breadstick set. Serena never looked physically perfect in that set, but for much of it it felt like her struggles were due to her opponents’ endeavors and not a problem on her part.
Serena looked like she was trying to get back into things in the second set. Several loud “Come on!”s at early moments showed that the World #1 was not going to pack in this match. And after a few games of finding herself, the younger Williams sister finally broke through and took a break lead at 4-3 in the second set. It looked like this match might be going the path of her match against Azarenka. And even Stephens broke back in the very next game, Serena managed to earn another break and take the second set 7-5.
The third set was close on the scoreboard but Serena was really in control. She was in just about every Stephens service game while Stephens had to work just to open up her three break chances, two of which were immediately canceled by aces. Serena got the deciding break for 3-2 and then broke again at 5-3 to take the final set and the match.
The slow start will raise questions again for Serena, and people will undoubtedly question if her age is a factor. But Serena is still the World #1 and has been near-unbeatable for the past few years. Her results on clay have lagged behind what she does on major tournaments at other surfaces. And yet, she is still through to the quarterfinals and is the favorite to win the tournament. She will certainly be the strong favorite in London and New York when we finally leave the red clay for her better-liked surfaces.
Her next opponent is Sara Errani. The Italian has reached the quarterfinals or better at the French Open for the past three years, including a runner-up in 2013. Errani has never beaten the top American in seven tries and her strong defense just can’t do anything against Serena’s power.
For Stephens, this match was a chance to put the world on notice again. That first set will stick in the minds of many as what the 22-year-old can do when she brings her best game. And yet, again, when it came to crunch time, she couldn’t beat a top player. Because Stephens was defending fourth-round points, this tournament won’t help her ranking at all as she is still searching for her first French Open quarterfinal. But maybe her high level of play in the first week her (and the first set of this match) will give her the confidence she needs to bring her game back to where it was two years ago.
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