Sloane Stephens praised Simona Halep for finaly winning her first grand slam title as she emphasized the positives from her two weeks at Roland Garros.
The American fell in a hard-fought battle against the world number one, losing 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the Roland Garros final which saw the Romanian finally win her first grand slam title. After the match, the US Open champion praised Halep for winning her maiden grand slam title, “I think she’s had a tough journey. I think winning here is very special for her and I’m glad she finally got her first slam. It’s a beautiful thing, very special,” explained Stephens.
“No matter how hard the adversity that you go through, there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m glad she finally got her light. She raised her game, raised her level. Not much you can really do about that. I competed the best I could, and the better player won the match today.”
However the American did get quite tense during her press conference as she took a dig at some of the American journalists for highlighting her losing record in Europe. When asked about the one word she would describe the tournament, she responded with the following, “One word? Um, perseverance maybe? Just keep going when the going is tough. Just always believe in yourself when other people don’t believe in you,” said Stephens.
“Can I just state for the record that all of you guys in here were Tweeting that I had a losing record anywhere except for the United States. So I think I have done very well to make the finals of the French Open. So if any of you want to Tweet that, I would be very happy, give you guys a like, a Retweet or something. Because you seem to only want to say, She’s 0 and 8 in the other countries, and blah, blah, blah.”
As Stephens emphasized the positives she conclude by explaining that she is unsure of whether she will play the grass court season as Wimbledon is less than a month away, “Maybe Eastbourne and Wimbledon. Maybe just Wimbledon. I’m not sure. It’s up in the air. I have to take care of myself first and just see what’s best.”
After her amazing two weeks in Paris, Stephens will now climb into the four players in the world and has oce again proven that no matter the surface she is always a threat at the big events.
