Stephens slays Keys for crown
Returning from 11-month injury layoff, Sloane becomes fifth unseeded woman to win Slam PAST WINNERS
New York, Sept. 10: Sloane Stephens, sidelined for 11 months by a left foot injury until returning in July, captured her first Grand Slam title by routing fellow American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-0 in Saturday’s US Open final.
Stephens took a $3.7 million (3.07 million euros) top prize from the biggest victory of her career, pitted against one of her closest friends in the first all-US final since 2002 on the New York hardcourts.
“I should just retire now,” Stephens said. “I’ll never be able to top this. Talk about a comeback. Things just have to come together and the past six weeks they really have.”
With the 15th victory in her past 17 matches, Stephens became only the fifth unseeded player to win a women’s Slam title, although Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko managed the feat at this year’s French Open.
The only prior unseeded US Open women’s champion was Kim Clijsters, who came back from retirement to take the 2009 title.
“It’s incredible,” Stephens said. “I had surgery on January 23. If some told me then I’d win the US Open, it’s imposssible I’d say, absolutely impossible.
“This journey has been incredible and honestly I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Stephens made only six unforced errors in the match to 30 for Keys, who had 18 winners to 10 for the champion.
It was the first final set of a US Open women’s championship match where the loser didn’t take a game since Chris Evert beat Evonne Goolagong 6-3, 6-0 in 1976.
Presented with the winner’s check, Stephens said, ‘That’s a lot of money. Wow,” but then handed the check envelope to best pal Keys, who she sat next to after the victory rather than on opposite sides of the umpire’s chair, to take hold of the winner’s trophy.
Keys, seeded 15th, and 83rd-ranked Stephens each fought off injuries to reach the title showdown.
Stephens returned at Wimbledon and slid to 957th in world rankings before semi-final runs at US Open tuneups in Toronto and Cincinnati, while Keys underwent her second left wrist surgery after the French Open and won a tuneup title at Stanford.
Stephens will jump to 17th in Monday’s world rankings while Keys, who took home $1.825 million as runner-up, will rise to 12th.
Neither Keys, 22, nor Stephens, 24, had ever reached a Slam final, only the seventh time in the Open Era (since 1967) two first-timers met for a women’s Slam title. Top seeds Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis won their second successive Grand Slam mixed doubles title on Saturday with a 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 victory over Michael Venus and Chan HaoChing.
Murray and Hingis had already won Wimbledon in July while Saturday’s triumph took their record as a team to a perfect 10-0. 2017: Sloane Stephens (USA) 2016: Angelique Kerber (GER) 2015: Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 2014: Serena Willliams (USA) 2013: Serena Willliams (USA) 2012: Serena Willliams (USA) 2011: Samantha Stosur (AUS) 2010: Kim Clijsters (BEL) 2009: Kim Clijsters (BEL) 2008: Serena Willliams (USA)