Sloane Stephens (click to enlarge)
Fearless. That is my description of Sloane Stephens in her win over Serena Williams in the 2013 Australian Open final. Add in mature and tennis smart as well. This might be the birth of a new star in the tennis firmament. Yes, Serena was hobbled, but A) no excuses and B) by midway through the final set Serena was ripping winners without complaint. So all credit to Sloane. Is this the passing of the torch? Well…not yet. While it’s true that Serena had never previously lost to an American player younger than her, it takes more than one win in a quarterfinal to make Sloane the new tennis queen. Remember the run Melanie Oudin had at the US Open a few years ago? So let’s see where Stephens goes from here. I suspect, and hope, that she is destined for multiple Majors. But she has to do it first.
Victoria Azarenka (click to enlarge)
And standing in Sloane’s way is the defending Australian Open champion, Victoria Azarenka. Vika took care of Svetlana Kuznetsova and will not be an easy mark. In fact, despite Sloane’s impressive win over Serena, I have to make Vika the favorite. But Stephens fooled us all once. Can she do it again?
ALL PICS CLICK TO ENLARGE
VICTORIA AZARENKA def. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5 6-1
Victoria Azarenka
Svetlana Kuznetsova
SLOANE STEPHENS def. Serena Williams, 3-6 7-5 6-4
Sloane Stephens
Serena Williams
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Williams shame shame..and that pick of your ankle right….it was sis knee not your ankle….First time I have even seen you and I have watched you from day one…throw a match.
Why would she have thrown it?!?! She’s in the form of her life, on track for another Slam, would make no sense whatsoever.
In response to the article, Sloane is a decent player (although not great in Qatar) and should progress to be solid top 10, don’t think we can quite tell exactly how good should be. I agree that we need a bit of caution in not bigging her up too much – didn’t help Oudin!
If you’d ever be interested in doing some sports writing for my site, sportingfixture.com, I’d love to have you! You can include ads of your own (so you’d make the money) as well as send people to this blog – all the info’s here http://sportingfixture.com/655-2 , do get in touchif you’re interested.
Yes, we must be cautious…tennis, well sports in general…is littered with players who looked like the next big thing but fizzled out or became good, but not trancendent, players. As for the writing, thank you very much for the offer. However, I just do this because I have always loved tennis and have grown to love the LPGA over the last 15 years…so I am just trying to spread the love. I have had other offers, but I like just blogging here when the mood strikes me
Haha, fair enough mate. There wouldn’t be any commitment or big efforts or anything on your part so if you change your mind do get in touch later on.
Until then keep enjoying you writing!