US Open 2017: Sloane Stephens’ gutsy win over Venus Williams is latest chapter of comeback from 934th ranking

When Venus Williams was playing in the Australian Open semi-finals in January, Sloane Stephens was stuck on her couch. Stephens had withdrawn from last year’s US Open with a stress fracture on her foot, and was recovering from the resulting surgery she had in January, as her WTA colleagues were battling for the first Grand Slam of the year. “I had just had surgery. I had a massive cast on. I couldn’t walk, so I was, planted on my couch for, like, two weeks,” she recollected. The young American could only watch on TV as the tennis year began. “I literally couldn’t — I couldn’t move.” [caption id=“attachment_4022941” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sloane Stephens reacts after defeating Venus Williams on Thursday. AP[/caption] But, on Thursday night, Stephens fought past Venus Williams by doing exactly that — moving. On a night marked by swings in momentum, Stephens dug in at 5-5, 30-30 in the third set and decided that she was going to get her racquet on every ball. It was a typical rally for deep in this third set, with Williams hammering shots into Stephens’ backhand. This time, Williams drove a backhand deep into Stephens’ backhand corner and charged the net. As Williams covered the cross-court passing shot, Stephens lunged backwards and flicked the ball up the line, as Williams could only look on. And, that was as close as Williams got to winning the match, as Stephens quickly broke for 6-5 and held her serve to win the match. With her natural speed and shotmaking abilities, Stephens simply refused to surrender to the onslaught of Williams’ shotmaking on Thursday night. Time and time again, shots that would have been winners for Williams came back across the net, forcing the 37-year-old American legend to hit extra shots, and, eventually to capitulate to her younger peer. The first two sets of the match were quick and somewhat deflating for the crowd. In the first two sets, it was Williams’ risky, big-hitting style that determined the outcome of most points. Rallies were short, and Williams was able to impose her style of play on her younger compatriot. The outcomes were dictated by Williams’ level of play — she started slow, with scores of errors and lost the first set 6-1. And, seconds later, it seemed, Williams could hit nothing but winners, and she took the second set 6-0. But, it was the third set of this match that really showed the brilliant tennis that the two Americans could play against each other. Stephens started the set well, capitalising on Williams’ errors to break and earn a 2-0 lead. Yet, Williams continued to play aggressively, fearlessly aiming for the lines to win the next three games. The momentum continued to shift, as the players traded breaks, but the tenor of the match had changed. Stephens had shifted the dynamic from weathering Williams’ shots to blunting them. Williams now found herself in rally after rally, with Stephens running down every one of Williams’ shots, and using her combination of touch and power to force Williams into errors. Even as Williams managed to get within two points of winning the match, Stephens never relented in her tenacious play. With this win, Stephens continues an incredible summer, where she entered the summer hard court season ranked 934th, and has already moved up to 83rd with two semi-final runs in Toronto and Cincinnati. She entered the US Open on a protected ranking, and noted in her post-match interview that she was worried about whether she would be able to come back to the top of the game within the timeframe that she had a protected ranking due to her injury. By any standards, Stephens’ run to the final is remarkable. Yet, it is the way in which Stephens won that is indicative of the lessons she has learned from overcoming her injury. Back in 2013, when Stephens reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, there was no doubt about her talent. Even then, her deft touch and athletic movement marked her as a player who could make an impact on the game in the future. And, with her defeat of Serena Williams en route to the Australian Open semi-finals, it seemed like the future had arrived. But, Stephens fell to the eventual tournament winner, Victoria Azarenka, in a close match that was marked by some controversy, as Azarenka called a medical timeout late in the match and admitted that perhaps panic rather than injury was the problem. However, Stephens then became embroiled in her own controversy, with some ill-advised comments in the press and on social media about Serena, among other things. However, beyond the off-court rumblings, what became truly problematic was what many observers would characterise as a flippant attitude, or, more accurately, a failure to fight when matches got hard.  After her run at the 2013 Australian Open, even though she had some success in smaller tournaments, Stephens failed to make similar inroads at a Slam until this year. After her win, Stephens reflected on her change in attitude, noting that, after her foot surgery, she didn’t know whether she could rely on her movement or even her ball striking skills when she first returned to tennis, so she knew that she would have to rely on the fight that made her push through the difficulties of her injury to carry her on the court. In reflecting on her past year, she summed up what she learned. “If you work really hard, if you fight your way through and fight your way back, you can make some things happen for yourself.”