{"id":115835,"date":"2025-08-28T08:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115835\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:35:11","slug":"sloane-stephens-explains-why-she-asked-herself-is-she-should-retire-after-winning-the-us-open-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/115835\/","title":{"rendered":"Sloane Stephens explains why she asked herself is she should ‘retire’ after winning the US Open in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sloane Stephens became the first American woman to win a Grand Slam title after Serena Williams.<\/p>\n

Three years after the former world number one\u2019s sixth and final title at Flushing Meadows, Stephens produced a magical run to the final.<\/p>\n

In the championship match she comprehensively defeated Madison Keys<\/a> to become the champion of her home Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

But once she achieved this goal, the immediate future became uncertain for the 32-year-old, who was 24 at the time of her Grand Slam success.<\/p>\n

\"SloanePhoto by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images for USTASloane Stephens contemplated retirement after winning the 2017 US Open<\/p>\n

Sloane Stephens<\/a> first came close to winning a Grand Slam when she reached the 2013 Australian Open<\/a> semifinals.<\/p>\n

She lost to Victoria Azarenka<\/a>, who went on to win the title. Over four years later in 2017, the American advanced to her first major final on home soil.<\/p>\n

Stephens produced one of the performances of her career to defeat Venus Williams<\/a> in the semifinals, before beating Keys 6-3, 6-0 in the final.<\/p>\n

This was the greatest moment of Stephens\u2019 career and she fulfilled her dream of winning a major. But after achieving that dream, she found herself asking questions about her future in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Slam was incredible but my goal was to win a Slam and I was like if I do this, I\u2019m good. And when it happened I was like \u2018what happens after this?\u2019 And I had a complete identity crisis,\u201d Stephens told Whistle\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018do I retire, do I keep playing?\u2019, that\u2019s where a lot of my foundation work came in because I knew that that is what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I knew in my tennis world and my tennis life, I can still hit the ball. But I was just kind of wondering what happens next, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SloanePhoto by Rich Fury\/Getty Images for Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright FuturesSloane Stephens says the foundation she set up helped extend her tennis career<\/p>\n

As much as Stephens has made an impact on the tennis court, she is very passionate about making a change off it.<\/p>\n

This is why she started the Sloane Stephens Foundation in 2013, to help provide better opportunities for education for young people.<\/p>\n

Stephens has since said that forming that foundation to help the next generation was a pivotal factor in the extension of her tennis career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding the foundation was something that I really wanted to do. 2013 is when we started it,\u201d the 2018 French Open<\/a> runner-up said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been something that\u2019s really saved my career in terms of helping me play longer because I\u2019m playing something that\u2019s not just for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think for me the foundation has really kept me going and it\u2019s kept me in the sport more because I want to learn more for the kids; I want to make the best resources and have everything they need to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sloane Stephens became the first American woman to win a Grand Slam title after Serena Williams. Three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[75212,99,428,11883],"class_list":{"0":"post-115835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sloane-stephens","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}