Sloane Stephens made some fascinating remarks during an appearance on Caroline Garcia's podcast, including comparing her competitive drive to Coco Gauff's.
It has been a few years since Stephens was near the top of women's tennis. Her peak was winning the 2017 US Open, where she defeated close friend and fellow American Madison Keys in the final.
Stephens remained near the top of the WTA Tour in 2018, finishing as the runner-up at the French Open to Simona Halep and at the WTA Finals to Elina Svitolina. She ended the 2018 season at No. 6 in the rankings.
Subsequent years have been less successful. The 31-year-old has won two titles in the last six seasons, including at this year's Rouen Open, but her level never returned to where it was in 2017 and 2018.
The last few months have been tough. Since winning the Rouen Open and getting two victories at the Madrid Open in April, Stephens has only managed to win two matches since.
That challenging run included a heartbreaking loss on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open to Clara Burel. The American led 6-0, 4-1, but ended up being defeated 0-6, 7-5, 7-5 by her younger opponent.
Stephens has not featured on the WTA Tour since falling in the opening round of the Korea Open in September, and her season appears to be over. Taking a break and refreshing after the last few months could be wise.
The former US Open winner is in a financial position to step away from the WTA Tour, but during her appearance on Garcia's podcast, Stephens hit out at the ATP and WTA for forcing players to compete when they are struggling because they fear the consequences of not doing so.
Some of Stephens' fans might be worried about her retiring after recent results. However, she confirmed on Garcia's podcast, titled the Tennis Insider Club, that retirement is not on the cards.
"Everyone asks me that, I feel so old! I have no idea. I guess when I start losing and they are not paying me any more!"
"There is a lot of adversity happening every single week which nobody ever sees, but I think what job is going to pay you to put on your tennis dress and go on and play a match on live TV? Otherwise, I’m going to be at home. Until I have a kid or something."
Stephens also admitted that her commitment and drive to play every week are not the same as players like Gauff or Iga Swiatek. That might explain her inability to stay at the level from 2017 to 2018 and why she has no regrets about not reaching No. 1 in the rankings.
"People who do it every single week, I applaud them. I don't know how they do it because I am exhausted. If I play one long week, I'm like, 'Man, I gotta go home.' So, I don't know how they do it. I don't think every tennis player was put here to play every single week because it's really freaking hard."
"There's a reason we have the Caroline Garcias, the Madison Keys(s) and the Coco Gauffs. It kinda makes our sport very unique and cool. Everyone cannot be World No. 1 and Iga [Swiatek] is great as No. 1 in the world but I wouldn't want that job, it's hard,"
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