US Open champion Sloane Stephens has pulled out of the Brisbane International, the organizers of the tournament said on Saturday.
American Sloane Stephens will miss out on the season-opening event, the Brisbane International due to a knee injury.
“Sloane Stephens needs an extra week’s rehab on her knee, meaning she will now not play the Brisbane International,” the organizers tweeted.
In September, Stephens became only the third player ever to win the US Open title ranked outside the top 10. Kim Clijsters and Flavia Pennetta had accomplished the feat in 2009 and 2015 respectively. It was a remarkable achievement for a player who was ranked as low as No. 957 in the world just five weeks before the Grand Slam in New York.
However, the 24-year-old’s demolition of her best friend Madison Keys in the US Open final was such that she barely had to break sweat. In fact, she needed only 61 minutes to complete a 6-3, 6-0 annihilation of Keys, who probably got overwhelmed by the occasion. Yet, Stephens’ triumph inside the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium was truly magnificent as prior to the event, nobody had predicted her win.
After winning her maiden Major crown, Stephens suffered a string of losses, but said that all those defeats did not affect her mindset.
“I didn’t lose any confidence from it,” she said. “I’m going to go into 2018 super pumped up and excited just the same. There isn’t a lot of people who can say they won the US Open, so I’m not too worried about that. I’m just going into 2018 with a good attitude.”
And before she announced her withdrawal from the Brisbane WTA event, Stephens had laid emphasis on remaining injury free for the next season.
The tournament in Brisbane is scheduled to take place from December 31 to January 7.
