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March 22, 2018
Miami, Florida
S. STEPHENS/A. Tomljanovic
6-1, 6-3
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. (Question off microphone.)
SLOANE STEPHENS: So playing amazing tennis right out of the gates was awesome, but I still needed to work on a lot of things. So I think now my time after Australia -- I didn't have the longest offseason at the end of last year, and then after Australia I had a bit of time to kind of focus on the things I really wanted to work on.
It's not perfect, but it's getting there, and that's all I can really, you know, try to do.
Q. You know this event is moving to Hard Rock Stadium next year. What do you think about this facility, and do you have any thoughts about the event moving and how it might do?
SLOANE STEPHENS: Well, yeah, I grew up playing tennis here when the USTA was here, so I have been playing here since I was -- my first time I ever played here was when I was 12 and I'm 25 now, so it's a long time that I have been coming down to Key Biscayne.
It will definitely be missed, but I'm not too upset, because the Hard Rock is closer to my house in Fort Lauderdale. So I'm not complainin'.
Q. I saw you at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, and you were really, really on a high, and of course you went on to win the US Open, but you're the first American woman not named Serena or Venus Williams to win it, and I want to know, since you won it, aside from the tennis, because everyone likes to see in the United States an American win, if you have any offers. I'm curious if you had other sports, other athletes from other sports recognize you, saying an American won tennis, come watch me play basketball or come watch me play hockey? And also, did you get a call from the White House, from the president, to come for a visit? I'm just kind of curious.
SLOANE STEPHENS: What do I say (whispering)?
I don't think -- no one's really invited me to come anywhere and watch them play or anything (smiling). Yeah, no, not really. I kind of just, all my normal folks just -- yeah. Sorry, I don't really have a good answer for that. Sorry.
Q. It's not like you won the Super Bowl? It's not that kind of an event where people know you and you become a movie star with offers. Because I know when Serena and Venus first won the US Open, my God, a floodgate of endorsements came and celebrity offers, and she had acting jobs, all of that. In other words, what you're saying is you're still a tennis player? There aren't really a lot of other things involved right now?
SLOANE STEPHENS: Um, I would say that's false. I would say that last year I won the biggest tournament in the world, and a lot of things came with that. And I don't think the priority was having anyone invite me to a basketball game.
Q. Because you're from Fort Lauderdale and you spent a lot of time in Florida, and although you're about seven, eight years older, you must have felt very, very, as bad as all of us that come from Florida, about the shootings. Wondering if you had any memories of Parkland and what maybe the students went through and how you feel about gun violence, if you want to talk about that?
SLOANE STEPHENS: No comment.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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