Stephens Looks to Regain Top Form in 2015

“All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed,” Irish playwright Sean O’Casey once said.

Sloane Stephens was 19-years-old on Quarterfinal Day of the 2013 Australian Open. On one of the most renowned stages of the sport, she faced the biggest moment of her young tennis career.

It did not help that across the net was fellow American Serena Williams. The world number one had won 15 Grand Slam titles. Stephens only played in six. The last time Serena had lost to an American other than her sister Venus was in 2005 at Wimbledon.

It is fair to say that regardless of her frequent flashes of potential, nobody believed too strongly in Sloane’s chances.

So, when Serena netted a backhand at the end of the third set, Stephens’ life changed. Nobody in the world, let alone the United States, had challenged the supremacy of the younger Williams Sister. With Sloane’s big win, she brought with that victory a lot of questions upon herself.

Could she be Serena’s heir apparent? How quickly would she climb her way up the rankings? Would she be able to reach the expectations measured by the Serena win?

That is a lot of pressure for a teenager to handle, especially one still looking to break out on the professional circuit.

Considering she had reached a highly respectable ranking of 25th in the world before her match with Serena, she was already in the spotlight. Sitting under it for too long burns many, and the light on her would only begin to heat up.

Out of her 20 losses the rest of the way in 2013, six of them were to players outside of the top-50 in the world. One was to an American outside of the top-100. For a player who, as expected, broke into the world’s top-20, the number of losses were too many for those watching her progress, and disappointing losses to boot.

If she beat Serena, shouldn’t she have been winning titles and slaying other champions? Keep in mind, she was still a kid. A kid ranked 13th in the world just a year after her upset.

Now at 20 years of age, Stephens was back at the place where she made her name. The lens she entered Melbourne’s major under, however, was different. Not earning big wins was now considered failure. Sloane lost to then world number two Victoria Azarenka, one of the most potent ball strikers of this era, in the fourth round of the 2014 Aussie Open. Stephens should not have won the match and did not, but yet, the pressure was still there.

Instead of becoming Serena instantly overnight, she has suffered setbacks. Four times in 2014, the youngster lost to players outside of the top-100 in the world. And not once during the 2014 calendar year, did she claim a title.

Sloane Stephens was not living up to the hype … plain and simple. But, was that hype fair? Serena will end up going down as one of the, if not the, very best female tennis players to ever step on a court. It is difficult to hold a player to such standards.

Keep in mind, Sloane broke into the top-20 as a teenager, but was that not enough? Many athletes trying to make it in the world of tennis would take reaching the fourth round of a major twice in a season, as she did in 2014. Now, it is about building on that.

The world has seen, from the match against Serena and others, that Stephens certainly has the potential to be a top player in the sport. She is better than her current ranking of 37th in the world.

So, how will Stephens respond? Will the pressure of the spotlight keep her from rising up again? Can Sloane overcome a wrist injury suffered last season to work her way back to where she was in 2013?

After a year that could have answered questions about the young Americans’ career, all that has come from this are more questions. She began her 2015 campaign in New Zealand at the ASB Classic, breezing past Silvia Soler-Espinosa in the opening round 6-3, 6-1 before falling to fellow American Lauren Davis in the second round, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6 in her final tune-up before the Aussie Open.

Equipped with groundstrokes to bother anybody, it is not a question of if Sloane Stephens could move to the top of the WTA Women’s Singles Rankings once again, but when and if it will happen in 2015.