American teenager Sloane Stephens believes she has a chance to knock off top American Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International. Serena has won 14 matches in a row and 33 of her last 34. The 31-year-old Williams and the 19-year-old Stephens have grown close over the last year since they met during Fed Cup in February; Williams has described Stephens as being like a little sister. The two have never played each other.
“Obviously she’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game of tennis, and I think she uses her weapons extremely well,” Stephens said. “Her strengths she uses and does them to a T. Once you have confidence you can do anything. I think the way that she’s riding right now is unbelievable. It’s amazing. But it can only go for so long. Not saying that I’m going to break it or whoever is a going to break it, if Vika breaks it, whoever. … This is a game; this is a business. I think when you go the court there is no fun and games anymore. It’s a match and you’ve got to be serious and you got to do what you got to do to win.”
Stephens, the world No. 38, missed the entire fall season after losing to Ana Ivanovic at the U.S. Open. She revealed that she tore an abdominal muscle that kept her off the court for seven weeks.
“I was kind of just downplaying it like it’s no big deal or whatever, but the day before I played Ivanovic, maybe the day before that, it started bleeding, the muscle started bleeding, so it was getting swollen,” she said. “I looked like a fat girl on the court because my stomach was bulging out and it looked terrible I just kind of was trying to forget about it, but it didn’t work because I couldn’t serve, I couldn’t do anything.”