Sloane Stephens admits the preseason hasn’t been really easy so far but her husband has been there to help her with her offseason training. Stephens is married to Jozy Altidore, an American soccer star. Through her Instagram account, Stephens held a Q&A session.
“How’s preseason so far?” one fan asked. Stephens answered: “Honestly, It’s been tough. But I’m thankful I could convince @jozyaltidore to do my afternoon runs with me! Helped get me through some tough days!
It will all be worth in the end.”
Stephens happy with the state of American tennis
Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, has also been ranked at No 3 in the world. Stephens, who will be turning 30 in March, is now the 37th-ranked player in the world.
Currently, the United States has four top-15 players on the WTA rankings list – Jessica Pegula, Cori Gauff, Madison Keys and Danielle Collins. Also, American tennis has two top-20 players on the ATP rankings – Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe.
“Yeah, I think we’ve always had a strong player field for American tennis, men and women. I think that obviously representing the US has had its advantages because there are so many of us. I think it’s only made us better, it’s raised our level.
It made everybody I grew up playing with, my age group, we’re all still competitively playing. We’re all pushing each other to do better. It’s nice. I think obviously as a really strong country, we’ve always been strong.
But to see us have won Billie Jean King Cup titles, have really strong teams like that, it’s encouraging,” Stephens explained. This past season, Stephens captured her lone title of the year in Guadalajara, in late February.
Stephens also enjoyed a good French Open run as she made the quarterfinal before losing to fellow American Gauff. It remains to be seen if Stephens can win more titles in 2023.
