Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens has responded to allegations that her coach dumped another player in order to work with her.
Olympic champion Monica Puig blasted former mentor Kamau Murray shortly after her first round exit from Flushing Meadows earlier in the week. Saying that she was unaware that he was working with another player until she was told by other people. Branding the move as a ‘slap in the face.’ Murray had previously worked with Stephens before Puig.
“I was informed by people close to me that my coach would not be able to come here with me when he was actually secretly working with another player, and that kind of affected my mentality and preparation.” She said following her loss.
Responding to the comments, world No.10 Stephens has taken a swipe at her fellow player by saying ‘grownups do grownup things’ and that there were two sides to every story. The American refused to be drawn into the argument as she made calls for the incident to not be made a big deal. However, she later said Puig was ‘a little inappropriate’ for speaking about Murray to the press.
“I think there’s two sides to every story. I don’t think that you should tell anything but the truth,” Stephens said.
“I’ve seen some of the things that were said. I think that grownups do grownup things. We should leave it in the past and we should move on.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with me, so… Her side is her side,” she added.
“But I don’t think we should make it a big situation. I’m sure she’s fully aware of what happened.
“If she has a problem, then she should approach me. It’s not like I don’t see her all the time. Yeah, to go to you guys (media) and say everything that has been said I think is a little inappropriate. But it is what it is. We move on.”
Like the Puerto Rican, Stephens also experienced a short campaign at this year’s US Open. The 2017 champion suffered a shock 6-3, 6-4, loss to Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya. Making it the first time she has lost in the first round of the tournament since 2015. During the match Stephens leaked 33 unforced errors (more than twice that of her opponent) and only won 45% of her second service points.
“I think she just played a good match, difficult conditions. I didn’t play my best. Sometimes it happens.” The 26-year-old commented about her performance.
“I felt good. Obviously it’s going to take more than five days or whatever to get it back. I’m just going to try my best to keep going. Obviously not the result I wanted here.” She added.
Stephens is the only top 10 player to lose her opening match in the women’s draw this year at the US Open.
