page_title: Sloane Stephens
section_title: 2019: Rankings drop, zero finals
hierarchical_section_title: Sloane Stephens / Professional career / 2019: Rankings drop, zero finals
caption_attribution_description: Sydney, Australia - 9 January 2019: Sloane Stephens in the second round at the Sydney International tennis against qualifier Yulia Putintseva on Ken Rosewall Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. (Photo by Rob Keating/robiciatennis.com)
context_page_description: Sloane Stephens is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world after Wimbledon in 2018. Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion, and has won six WTA singles titles in total.
  Born to athletic parents with backgrounds in collegiate swimming and professional American football, Stephens was first introduced to tennis at the club across the street from her house in Fresno, California. Her stepfather was a competitive recreational tennis player and served as her primary inspiration for beginning to play the sport. Stephens moved to Florida to train at a tennis academy, ultimately working with Nick Saviano for many years. She developed into a promising junior player, reaching a career-high ITF junior ranking of world No. 5 and winning three out of four Grand Slam girls' doubles titles in 2010 alongside her partner Tímea Babos.
  While still just 19 years old, Stephens rose to prominence at the 2013 Australian Open with a semifinal run highlighted by an upset of then-world No. 3 Serena Williams.
context_section_description: Stephens struggled throughout the 2019 season. Although she remained in the top 10 for the majority of the year in large part due to ranking points she was defending from the previous year's WTA Finals, she could not match her best performances at the Grand Slam tournaments or other higher-level events. Two of her biggest improvements came at two Grand Slam events. Stephens reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, securing her first match wins at the tournament since 2014. She also reached the third round at Wimbledon, despite having her lost previous two her opening round matches there. Her best Grand Slam performance was a quarterfinal loss to Johanna Konta at the French Open, where she could not defend her runner-up finish from the previous season. Konta also defeated her at Wimbledon. Stephens ended her Grand Slam season with an opening round loss at the US Open to qualifier Anna Kalinskaya.
  Outside of the majors, Stephens best performance also came on clay at the Madrid Open, a Premier Mandatory event. During the tournament, she reached the semifinals, where she lost to No. 7 Kiki Bertens. Aside from this tournament and the French Open, the only other event where she reached the quarterfinals was the Charleston Open at the start of the clay court season. Stephens fell out of the top 10 shortly before the US Open, and again afterwards. She fell out of the top 20 upon losing her 2018 WTA Finals rankings points near the end of the season.
caption: Stephens at the 2019 Sydney International
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