Stephens excited to play in New York in February

In September, Sloane Stephens won the US Open with a ranking of No. 83, sweeping aside the likes of Dominika Cibulkova, Venus Williams and Madison Keys to collect her maiden Grand Slam crown.

She did it all after a foot injury kept her off the tour from August 2016 until July. Now, she's going to return to the city of her greatest career achievement a bit sooner than expected.

The American is scheduled to kick off the New York Open (OK, technically, it's in Long Island) on February 11. The ATP 250 event has moved from Memphis, and already has commitments from top talent such as Kei Nishikori, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Ryan Harrison and Bob and Mike Bryan.

Stephens will be joined by Eugenie Bouchard, James Blake and John McEnroe for an action-packed exhibition on opening night.

"I think it’ll be great. Playing an exhibition in front of great crowds is always amazing," Stephens said. "I’ve been in New York but haven’t played there since the US Open, so I think it’ll be really great and have a good crowd."

Stephens has stayed down to earth, even after pocketing a check for $3.7 million. Her dream fortnight earned her a spot back inside the Top 20 and a place on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

"I think I’m just trying to stay free, be healthy, and enjoy playing," Stephens said. "I hadn’t played for 11 months and had really awesome results, which is amazing and a career milestone for me, but things haven’t changed too much. My goals are still to stay injury free and healthy and just enjoy myself as much as I can on the court."

After the US Open, Stephens stumbled through six straight losses, including two during the Fed Cup final to close out the season.

“I think I played a few tournaments that I wasn’t ready to play mentally or physically, and you’ll never get a good result out of that, but sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do, and it was just unfortunate that that was the situation I was in," Stephens said.

That losing streak isn't going to bring her down as the new season dawns, so expect to see her signature grin back on court soon.

"I didn’t lose any confidence from it," she said. "I’m going to go into 2018 super pumped up and excited just the same. There isn’t a lot of people who can say they won the US Open, so I’m not too worried about that. I’m just going into 2018 with a good attitude."