ROLAND GARROS

June 2, 2023

Sloane Stephens

Press Conference

S. STEPHENS/Y. Putintseva

6-3, 3-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Sloane, back in the fourth round here in Roland Garros, a place you've always done quite well. Just talk about how thrilled you are to get to week two here in Paris this year.

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yeah, obviously always really nice to be in the fourth round of any slam, but I think a slam I've done so well at. So I think being able to get some good wins and matches under my belt and play some solid tennis, something I can be really proud of obviously.

Yeah, happy to be in the fourth round of one of my favorite tournaments.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Before the match Yulia promised that her fan club would be at the match today. They showed up, and I'm curious what you thought of them and their songs and their cheers and all of that.

SLOANE STEPHENS: Obviously, they were very loud. They were very into the match, very committed fans. I always say if you've played Simona Halep in the finals of a Grand Slam, you've felt fans before. If you've played her in Montreal in a final, you've felt fans before.

I definitely have experienced a lot of fandom. I thought their cheering was great. A little bit tricky because they were in the box, so now that you can get coaching, if they're overpowering both coaches, that's a little, like, eh. But I appreciated their commitment to the cause.

Q. Someone once said that playing against Putintseva, if it's not one scam, then it's another.

SLOANE STEPHENS: And you saw it today, didn't you? Didn't work too well.

But yeah, I mean, she is just that type of player. She's always been that type of player since the juniors. I think that's just her game, her style, and her vibe.

You just have to go with it. You have to focus on yourself. You can't be looking on the other side of the court. You have to only focus on you, what you're doing along with the fandom people. You really have to stay on your side and focus on what you're doing. I thought I did that well today.

Q. When you were a teenager coming up and were a highly-touted prospect, how did you experience matches then compared to how you experience them now? I'm asking this, in part, because Daria was talking earlier about how when you are young, her idea was that you have no pressure and that older players get really nervous playing younger players. As someone who has been -- sorry. I just called you an older player.

SLOANE STEPHENS: Now that I'm old.

Q. Yeah, not cool.

SLOANE STEPHENS: (Laughing.)

Q. Wise. Help me out. What's the difference? Is that really indeed a thing?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yes and no. I think when I was younger, I loved playing the older players because I was, like, oh, they're going to really -- it's going to be a match, right?

I think you don't know what to expect when you are playing younger players. I feel like when you play someone your age, it's always the toughest match. When you're playing someone older than you or way younger than you, there's always a different dynamic.

I always say the closest matches are the matches when the people, like, play juniors together or are from the same country that know each other really well. That I think is the hardest person to play. Even if the person is ranked 50 spots below you, if you grew up practicing with that person, the match is going to be so much harder than if you were playing the No. 1 person in the world.

Q. When did you start to feel like one thing rather than the other thing? Was it when all of a sudden you were playing 16-year-olds?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Well, now that I'm playing 16-year-olds, yes, it's very different.

But I think it's interesting because when you don't know someone's game, like, everyone is always that person on the tour where you don't know their game. They always win a bunch of matches because no coach has figured it out yet or broken the code. So everyone is watching a player, trying to figure out how they play, like, what are their strengths? You don't know much about them.

I think that's the hardest thing now playing the up-and-coming juniors because, like, there was COVID and there wasn't a lot of video and tape on these younger players that played juniors because their junior careers were kind of nonexistent at their peak time when they would have been winning a junior slam and you would have seen them a lot.

For instance, I saw a ton of Anisimova, a ton of Coco, a ton of Leylah, because when I was in the finals here, Leylah and Coco, I think, were in the finals here playing each other or in the semis or something. Anisimova and Coco played in the finals the year I won the Open.

I think seeing them a lot more when they came on tour was a little bit easier to understand their games, but now that these younger girls, I don't know where they're coming from. Haven't seen them at all.

Q. You are on the players council. You've got a lot of brain cells you could rub together. I'm just wondering, the WTA Tour has been riveted lately with a lot of thorny, sensitive, personal, geopolitical pain. I'm just wondering how much you guys on the council talk about it, and do you possibly have an elegant solution to all the pain that's happening these days?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Well, I think obviously we talk a lot. We have a ton of group chats. We have our subcommittees. We have all of these things going on. I will say that for as long as I've been on the player council, the last -- since COVID, before COVID, I think I've been on four years now, too long, obviously -- I would say that there has just been one thing after another, and it's very hard on a tour where we're so international. There are so many things happening. There are so many political things happening.

It's really hard to grasp for every single player the importance of a single issue because one issue means a lot more to one person than it does to the other.

Then when another issue happens and it's on the other side, there's a lot of back and forth. I feel like on the council we try to make everyone happy and make everyone feel safe and everyone feels that they are a part of our tour and loved and cared for. Sometimes that just doesn't happen. Sometimes there are just rules and regulations and decisions that are made that are not in our control.

I think a lot of the times our players maybe feel that they're not spoken for, but I don't think that's the case. I feel like we have spoken too much, and sometimes things are just out of our control. A lot of the things that happen in general on the tour and in the world are so intertwined now that it's not just tennis anymore. It's a lot of worldly issues.

I wish that tennis could be tennis for a lot of our girls, and that's just not how it is right now, which is unfortunate.

Q. Last year you thought it was a good idea what happened at Wimbledon. Obviously, the rules have changed now. Has your mind changed? This war could be going on a while.

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yeah, I feel like the intricacies of the decision that was made last year was, again, to try to make the players on our tour feel like they were a part of our tour and that we were one and it was for all. And obviously, like you said, the war could be going on for a long time. It could be ten years. It could be five years. Who knows, right?

I think a lot of those decisions that we have made, and we'll have to continue to make as a tour, for Steve, all of these things that are happening. I think it's honestly day by day because we have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow.

Like I said, it's unfortunate for our players because there's two sides of it. Everyone is being affected no matter what side you're on, right? I can't say, Oh, Wimbledon made a good decision or a bad decision, but now that we're in a different place a year later, that was always the concern: What happens next? Do our players feel comfortable on the other side, the players that have to sign a waiver or whatever it is, do they feel comfortable? Do they feel that their families are comfortable and safe doing that?

There's a lot of different things that surround that that are not obviously spoken about enough. Again, the main point is for our players to feel safe and comfortable and for it to be a fair competition and everyone be able to play.

Q. Just following up on that, I'm curious over the years, given your experience on the court and all that you've done off the court, how has your perspective towards just being a tennis player changed? I guess when you were younger, did you think about tennis would just be tennis and not much else?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yeah, I thought tennis was for fun, right? I think as I've gotten older and so many things have happened on and off the court, being on player council has really opened my eyes because I think I've always been even off player council I was always the one that was, like, everyone needs to be, you know, fair and have an equal sportsmanship. That's just me as a person.

I think being on player council has really just opened my eyes to things that aren't being done and things that are being done really well and trying to highlight those things, the good things about our tour, right? Like, why Billie Jean King founded our tour 50 years ago. All of those things. Keeping the foundation and the fundamentals of our sport, of the game, like the traditions. A lot of that stuff I think sometimes gets lost in the political situations that are constantly happening.

But, yeah, I feel super old that I'm very invested in all of these things because when I was 18 years old, I don't even remember having -- like, I don't think we ever even spoke about things like this. This wasn't existent. I think this is a whole new ball game for a lot of people and just trying to manage it the best that they can.

Especially the players that are affected, this is a new landscape, and the terrain is not getting smoother. It's tough. And, again, trying to be a professional tennis player and make money and win points and travel the world and logistically be here and there and not being able to go home and not being able to do this and not be with your family, it's not easy and it's not fair. Yet, a lot of these girls are still here playing and giving their best effort.

I think that's all you can do, but there's a lot more to it than just it's tennis.

Q. Just regarding your player council role, did you get looped in on the events of earlier today with Aryna not doing the media conference because she said she did not feel safe?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yes, I'm aware.

Q. Do you have thoughts on it?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yeah, I think everyone should feel safe and comfortable in their press, and I feel like if that's not the case, then it was right for her to remove herself and do what's best for her.

Like I said the last five minutes, everyone needs to feel good about themselves and what they're doing. It's not just tennis. There's a lot more to it. If she doesn't feel safe, then she doesn't need to be there. That's the end of that.

Q. Can you explain all the things that the WTA have done in an effort to make things better for Ukraine? There has been stuff done; right?

SLOANE STEPHENS: Yeah. There's been a ton of stuff done. I actually read a document. We had an email sent out about all the things that we do. I'm not going to tell you what they are because I do not remember all of them off the top of my head.

The WTBA, Benefits Association, has a lot of things that they do, special -- not special, but that the players can apply for, grants they can apply for, things that they can do in their hometowns, what they can do.

I know a lot of our players on tour have offered the Ukrainian players places to train, places to stay, all of those things. That's just us girls just wanting to be family and help support whoever we can.

But the WTBA, I think they're going to release some of the things that they've --

Q. They should.

SLOANE STEPHENS: -- done. And that's something we've talked about a lot on council is that no one wants to brag and say, Oh, we've done so many great things, but it's just hard because we want to do these things and have our players feel safe and comfortable and not feel violated.

A lot of the times it's, like, well, if this person got this, why didn't this person get this? There's a lot of that, which is annoying and it's complicated. Like I said, it's not just straightforward, so that's what makes it a little bit tricky.

There are a lot of things being done, and I've read it over and over again. We talk about it in our council chats all the time. I think I'm going to have to get on Steve about releasing it.

Q. Just you're playing against Sabalenka next.

SLOANE STEPHENS: Oh, yeah, the actual tennis questions?

Yeah, I think it will be a great match. Obviously in the fourth round of a slam on my favorite surface. Obviously she's been playing some great ball this year, even though she's been going through a lot.

I think that it will be a great match. Obviously hope we're on a good court, and just really looking forward to it. It's obviously another opportunity to go out there and play and try to make the quarters of a Grand Slam. Who doesn't want to do that?