Sloane Stephens, who missed 11 months with a left foot injury before returning in July, reached her first Grand Slam final by outlasting Venus Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 Thursday Sep 07,2017 at the US Open.
Stephens, whose best prior Slam run was to the 2013 Australian Open semi-finals, will play the winner of a later match between US compatriots CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys on Saturday for a top prize of $3.7 million (3.07 million euros).
"I just worked my tail off and tried to run every ball down and here we are," Stephens said. "It required a lot of fight and a lot of grit."
Stephens, who was ranked 957th in July when her hardcourt campaign began, has won 14 of her past 16 matches, including semi-final runs at Toronto and Cincinnati, for a total of $310,000 this season.
Ousting a seven-time Grand Slam champion who was seeking her first US Open final since 2002 left Stephens stunned.
"I have no words to describe what I'm feeling, what it took to get here, the journey I've been on," Stephens said.
"It's incredible. I don't know how I got here. Your guess is as good as mine. Just hard work. That's it."
Now 83rd, Stephens is the lowest ranked Slam finalist since unranked Justine Henin at the 2010 Australian Open and the lowest at the US Open since unranked Kim Clijsters won the 2009 title.
US ninth seed Williams could not overcome 51 unforced errors that doomed her bid to become the oldest women's singles finalist in US Open history at age 37.
"It was definitely well competed," Williams said. "In the end she won more points than I did and that's what it added up to.
"Just made so many errors at the end there... I wasn't playing well. Just wasn't playing well."
Williams will return to the top five in Monday's world rankings for the first time since 2011, the year she was diagnosed with strength-sapping Sjogren's Syndrome.
Stephens, who beat Williams in the first round of the 2015 French Open in their only prior meeting, will jump into the world top 25 next week with the victory.
Stephens, whose best prior Slam run was to the 2013 Australian Open semi-finals, will play the winner of a later match between US compatriots CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys on Saturday for a top prize of $3.7 million (3.07 million euros).
"I just worked my tail off and tried to run every ball down and here we are," Stephens said. "It required a lot of fight and a lot of grit."
Stephens, who was ranked 957th in July when her hardcourt campaign began, has won 14 of her past 16 matches, including semi-final runs at Toronto and Cincinnati, for a total of $310,000 this season.
Ousting a seven-time Grand Slam champion who was seeking her first US Open final since 2002 left Stephens stunned.
"I have no words to describe what I'm feeling, what it took to get here, the journey I've been on," Stephens said.
"It's incredible. I don't know how I got here. Your guess is as good as mine. Just hard work. That's it."
Now 83rd, Stephens is the lowest ranked Slam finalist since unranked Justine Henin at the 2010 Australian Open and the lowest at the US Open since unranked Kim Clijsters won the 2009 title.
US ninth seed Williams could not overcome 51 unforced errors that doomed her bid to become the oldest women's singles finalist in US Open history at age 37.
"It was definitely well competed," Williams said. "In the end she won more points than I did and that's what it added up to.
"Just made so many errors at the end there... I wasn't playing well. Just wasn't playing well."
Williams will return to the top five in Monday's world rankings for the first time since 2011, the year she was diagnosed with strength-sapping Sjogren's Syndrome.
Stephens, who beat Williams in the first round of the 2015 French Open in their only prior meeting, will jump into the world top 25 next week with the victory.
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