NEW YORK — There may come a day in women’s tennis when another American dethrones Serena Williams.
But for the all the hype about the fourth-round match between Serena and 20-year-old Sloane Stephens — and their emerging rivalry dating to earlier this year — that moment didn’t come Sunday afternoon inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Not by a long shot.
Williams, the No. 1 seed and defending champ, demonstrated that she’s still the Queen not only of American tennis, but of women’s tennis worldwide, by eliminating Stephens, 6-4, 6-1.
“It definitely feels like a really big match because Sloane’s such a great player,” Williams told the near-packed crowd in Ashe. “I mean how excited are we for the future of American tennis.”
That last part was a not-so-subtle reminder that while Stephens may one day become the future, Serena and her 16 Grand Slam singles titles and counting are the present.
And she’s not going anywhere real soon.
“I mean, obviously she’s No. 1 in the world for a reason,” Stephens said of Serena. “I thought she played really well herself. Obviously it didn’t go how I wanted. The second set got away from me a little bit.
“All in all I thought I competed well and played well. That’s all you can do really.”
Stephens showed she’s one of the few women on the tour who can trade concussive groundstrokes from the baseline with Serena.
Especially during the first set, Stephens hung tight with Serena from the back before ultimately smacking a forehand wide on Serena’s third set point with Stephens serving at 4-5.
While the crowd was hoping for an extended match, their hopes were extinguished quickly in the second set when Stephens was broken to go down 1-3 and then again for 1-5.
When Stephens smacked a forehand into the net on the third match point, Serena dropped to her knees and pumped her fist toward her player box.
You think this match meant a little something extra for her?
“Uhm, maybe I was at a different match, but I didn’t see a big celebration,” Serena said. “I just pumped my fist, I was down, and then I walked to the net.”
Stephens had beaten Serena in three sets in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but Serena was dealing with back and ankle problems at the time.
Their up-and-down relationship involving Stephens accusing Serena of unfollowing her on Twitter and deleting her off BlackBerry Messenger has been well documented.
This match gave Serena an opportunity to get revenge for that match and to put Stephens back in her place.
“Her mouth has gotten her in trouble,” CBS commentator Mary Carillo said on air of Stephens.
John McEnroe said that he believes Stephens — currently No. 16 in the world — has the talent where you could “see her in the top five in the world” at some point.
Stephens said her immediate goal was to make the Top 10.
“This year, I plan on playing four more tournaments,” she said. “I’m going to try and break the top 10 at the end of this season. I think that’s a big jump from where I was last year kind of around 40 and kind of lingering.”
Someday down the road, Stephens said, maybe a younger generation will see her name in their section of the draw — just like she saw Serena’s in this one — and experience dread.
“Maybe one day when she’s not playing people would be, ‘Maybe I wish I wasn’t on the same side as Sloane,'” Stephens said.
“Things happen in their time. It’s an honor to be able to play on the court with one of the greatest tennis players of all time. ”
Stephens may be the future, as Serena said, but there’s no doubt who the current Queen is.
Photos: Getty Images
