Sloane Stephens: The American Tennis Comeback Queen

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Sloane Stephens was born on March 20 1993, in the city of Plantation in Florida. She is now a professional tennis player for the United States of America. Until now, she has 7 WTA singles titles to her credit. 

Stephens rose to prominence at the 2013 Australian Open semifinals when she beat  Serena Williams. Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion, and  she achieved a career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world after Wimbledon in 2018.

Stephens has an uncharacteristic style of play compared to other top American players. Most of the players are considered to be aggressive players on the WTA Tour whereas Stephens has a more passive approach.

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Age 29
Height 1.70 mts
Nationality American
Turned professional 2009
Career titles 7
Highest ranking (Singles) No. 3
Current ranking (Singles) No. 39
Social media profile Instagram @sloanestephens

Twitter @SloaneStephens

Personal Information and Relationships

  • Sloane Stephens was born on March 20 1993, in Florida to John Stephens and Sybil Smith.
  • It is no wonder that Sloane chose sports as both of her parents are athletes.
  • Her parents divorced soon after and her mother remarried Sheldon Farell in 1997.
  • She has a younger half-brother, Shawn Farrell, who played baseball and football at Notre Dame High School
  • Her stepfather was a competitive recreational tennis player and he encouraged and supported her to play the sport.
  • She started playing tennis at the age of nine at the Sierra Sport and Racquet Club, a tennis facility located across the street from her house 
  • Stephens moved to Florida to train at the Evert tennis academy.
  • She has been coached by Kamau Murray, Thomas Högstedt and Nick Saviano in the past.
  • She is currently coached by Kamau Murray once again

Career

  • Stephens made her professional debut in 2009.
  • In 2011, She won her first professional singles title at the Camparini Gioielli Cup, a $50K event in Italy.
  • In 2012, she reached the fourth round at the French Open
  • In 2013, She entered the Australian Open, her first Grand Slam tournament. She defeated Serene Williams in the semifinal. This was the first top-ten victory of Stephens’s career. She then lost the next match to Victoria Azarenka but rose to a career-high ranking of No. 17 after the tournament.
  • In 2014, at the Australian Open, she reached the fourth round and was once again defeated by Victoria Azarenka.
  • In 2015, she won her first WTA title at the Washington Open where she defeated Sam Stosur in the semi finals and won the final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
  • In 2016, she won two more WTA titles, one at the Mexican Open and the other at the Charleston Open.
  • She underwent surgery for a stress fracture in her foot in January 2017 and missed most of the season.
  • She made her comeback at the US Open in 2017 where she defeated Madison Keys to win her first Grand Slam tournament title and was awarded the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award.
  • In 2018, she won the Miami Open where she defeated Jeļena Ostapenko in the final and she also cracked the top 10 for the first time.
  • Stephens struggled with form throughout the 2019 season and she fell out of the top 20.
  • In 2021, at the French Open, she defeated Karolína Plíšková in the second round but lost in her fourth-round match to Barbora Krejčíková. 
  • At the 2022 Australian Open, Sloane lost in the first round to Emma Raducanu.

Prize Money Earnings

She has earned a total of around 16,475,443US$ from her participation in different championships. In the year 2022 so far, she has earned around US$161,960.

Endorsements and Sponsors

  • Sloane’s apparel was sponsored by Under Armor right from 2010.
  • Since 2018, all her clothing and footwear have been sponsored by Nike.
  • Her tennis racquets are provided by Head and she specifically uses the Graphene XT Radical Pro model tennis racquet.
  • She is also associated with Mercedes-Benz.
  • She is also associated with health-related endorsements such as doTerra, Precision Nutrition, and Colgate.
  • She is also tied up with the American Express credit card company 
  • She was also a brand ambassador for USANA, a nutrition company.

Net Worth

Sloane’s total net worth as of today is estimated to be around 16 million US$. While this figure is just an estimate, it is likely to be true due to the large amounts she collects as prize money and also from her endorsements.

Trivia

  • Stephens is married to United States national soccer team player Jozy Altidore,
  • She is extremely passionate about her foundation known as the Sloane Stephens Foundation which was created in 2013 with the objective of enhancing the quality of life for youth. She aims to do this through exposure to tennis as a basis for lifelong learning and healthy lifestyle choices.
  • She loves fashion, beauty, music, and spending time with her family
  • Her favorite surface is clay