Sloane Stephens Beats Madison Keys to Claim U.S. Open Title

Sloane Stephens won the U.S. Open on Saturday in a remarkably fast comeback from foot surgery. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

It was springtime in the United States, and the women’s tennis tour was in full swing, with the clay-court season underway. Kamau Murray received a call in April from his injured protégé Sloane Stephens, who explained that she was ready to start practicing.

Murray, surprised at how soon the call had come after Stephens’s foot surgery in late January, said he told her, “O.K., call me when you can walk.’”

Nonetheless, they were soon on a court at U.C.L.A. in early May, with Stephens sitting on a wooden table with a racket in her right hand as Murray tossed her balls. He said he then had her sit on a backless office chair with wheels, so she could roll around and hit some more.

Stephens was not able to stand and hit until May 16. Even then, she was not yet allowed to run.

Neither of them could have imagined then that she was actually on the verge of winning her first Grand Slam singles title.

“Impossible, I would say,” Stephens said as she stood in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday with a United States Open trophy in her hands.

Even tennis, a sport where comebacks are the coin of the realm, has rarely seen a revival quite like this. Stephens, a 24-year-old with an incandescent grin and a potent blend of offensive and defensive skills, was ranked 957th early last month after having returned to the tour in July.

But on Saturday, she beat the No. 15-seeded Madison Keys, her American contemporary, 6-3, 6-0, in just 61 minutes in the U.S. Open final.
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