Time Sep

15

Colgate and Built with Chocolate Milk. She walked

the ESPYs red carpet and won Best Female Tennis

Player honors.

Following the Open Stephens kept entering

tournaments despite nursing a sore knee reluctant

to miss more time after her long layof. The results

were dismal: eight straight defeats including

in the irst round of the Australian Open. The

courtside chatter turned again to whether

Stephens had what it takes to be great. Tennis

legend and ESPN analyst Chris Evert for one

publicly questioned if Stephens had the desire to

win more Grand Slams.

Stephens takes the criticism in stride.

“Everyone was ‘Oh my God what U.S. Open

champion loses eight matches in a row?’ ” she says

from the couch in the Washington hotel. “I was

like ‘Me!’ It’s going to be ine.”

Stephens has a coolness that can be mistaken

for ambivalence. But she has always managed

her career on her terms. In late 2017 she inished

the requirements for a bachelor’s degree in

communications from Indiana University East’s

online program. She didn’t mind missing practice

to tend to her studies and ignored whispers she

was loaing on the tennis court. “Bro I’ve got to

graduate” she says of sticking to her timeline no

matter the consequences. “This is important O.K.”

She’s now pursing an online MBA.

Stephens is deiant about sticking to her chosen

path. “I’ve been pretty harshly judged for always

doing what I wanted to do” she says.

Some critics are coming around. Evert says she

now sees determination in Stephens’ eyes. It helps

that she’s regained her winning form reaching

the inals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal just a few

weeks before the start of the Open. Stephens knows

she’ll face additional pressure as the defending

champion. But she insists she’s ready to handle it.

“I’m in a good place” Stephens says before

leaving the hotel for dinner with her coach. “People

say Oh you’re inconsistent you’re this you’re that.

Whatever. When I retire from tennis I’ll be able to

look back and say I did it the way I wanted to do it.

I was just playing. And I was just making sure I was

happy along the way.” 

‘I’ve been

pretty

harshly

judged for

always

doing

what I

wanted

to do.’

SLOANE

STEPHENS

on her doubters

JUERGEN HASENKOPF—BPI/SHUTTERSTOCK