Sloane Stephens took a break before traveling to
Mexico for the
Merida Open Akron, and talked about youngstar
Alycia Parks and
her friend
Madison Keys The American hasn’t had good results during the first
weeks of the year and has been eliminated at the first round in the three
tournaments she has played. The last official appeared for Stephens this year was
the Australian Open, where she lost to the 21-year-old Russian years old
Anastasia Potapova.
Former world No. 3 is one of the most active tennis
players on social networks, where she constantly interacts with her fans. On
this occasion, she used her Instagram account to answer some questions from her
fans “Been
a while... Ask me Anything” Stephens wrote.
One of the questions she was asked was if she is
planning to play doubles this year, and the American replied: “Yes!! I’m going
to play with @alycia.parks
at some tournaments this year! She is bringing me out of doubles retirement” and
added “I’m excited to play with my girl.”
Another fan wanted to know about the close friendship
she has with her compatriot Madison Keys: “Sloane, your friend Madison Keys is
the best person (acuarius). Yes/not.”
The 29-year-old responded with a photo of her and Keys
in their recent participation in the exhibition that they played to open the
ATP 250 Dallas: “Pretty much @madisonkeys”.
Before the match between both friends, they
participated in an activity organized by Buddy Up Tennis, which serves children
with Down Syndrome and special needs. On the occasion, the former US Open
champion met a young fan who is also called Sloane Stephens. When her mother
was pregnant, she found there was a tennis player with the same name she had
decided, so the whole family became a fan of Stephens.
The player thanked the experience through her social
networks, where she shared a video of the moment she lived:
"I
love kids, and I think sharing something incredibly special like our name,
there's very few Sloanes in the world, and very few Sloane Stephens," said
the Grand Slam winner. "I don't know if there's more of us, but to be able
to meet another is very cool and to be able to share that experience is pretty
awesome."
The next challenge for the world No. 40 will be the
Merida Open Akron on February 20, where she’ll try to win her first match of
the season.
