Sloane Stephens admits she could never be an Iga Swiatek as the 31-year-old confesses she is not the one to be putting up the same effort every week during the entire season.
Early in her career, the American achieved her best success after famously upsetting Serena Williams in the 2013 Australian Open quarterfinal and becoming a Grand Slam champion at the 2017 US Open. Several months later, she also won her maiden WTA 1000 title at the 2018 Miami Open and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world.
But since then, Stephens hasn't enjoyed much success, especially in recent times as she is currently on a six-match losing streak and ranked at No. 75 in the world. While the former world No. 3 managed to claim the Rouen title in May after winning five matches there, she is still just 19-22 on the year.
Stephens on Caroline Garcia's podcast: Swiatek is great, but I wouldn't want that job...
While the Polish five-time Grand Slam champion lost the world No. 1 spot to Aryna Sabalenka on Monday, it doesn't change the fact that the 23-year-old has been pretty consistent and extremely successful over the last couple of seasons.
"People who do it every single week, I applaud them. I don't know how they do it because I am exhausted. If I play one long week, I'm like, 'Man, I gotta go home.' So, I don't know how they do it. I don't think every tennis player was put here to play every single week because it's really freaking hard. There's a reason we have the Caroline Garcias, the Madison Keys' and the Coco Gauffs. It kinda makes our sport very unique and cool. Everyone cannot be world No. 1 and Iga iis great as No. 1 in the world but I wouldn't want that job, it's hard," Stephens said on the Tennis Insider Club.
The 2017 US Open winner last played at the WTA 500 tournament in Seoul last week, where she was beaten by Hailey Baptiste in the first round. Stephens is without a win since overcoming Elsa Jacquemot in the Wimbledon first round on July 1st.
