NEW YORK _ About six weeks ago Sloane Stephens was the 957th-ranked player in the world. This last winter she was hobbling around on crutches and wondering where her career was going to lead, forced to sit out for nearly 11 months.
Wondrously, surprisingly, almost shockingly it has led to the U.S. Open women's final, the first Grand Slam final of her career. To reach that match she took out a legendary seven-time Grand Slam winner.
In a match of tidal ebb and flow, Stephens beat Venus Williams, 6-1, 0-6, 7-5, at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.
Stephens will play Madison Keys, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Coco Vandeweghe late Thursday night, in Saturday's final.
The Stephens-Williams matchup was their first, and one that will be deeply etched in Stephens' memory.
"She is one of the most graceful, elegant players ever," Stephens said. "I am honored that I played when she played, that I could play her tonight."
We begin the match in the third set, because that's where it began. The first two sets were ho-hum drubbings. Stephens took the first set, though she did not so much have a grip on the match as Williams lacked a grip on her game. Then to start the second set, Williams fought off three break points to hold serve. Now it was Stephens who was losing her grip and Williams won with a bagel.
Williams was broken to start the third set, and she broke Stephens in the fourth game to even it. Now the tennis was getting seriously good, long rallies that held the crowd in awe. The key was Stephens fighting back down 0-40 on her serve in the sixth game. They exchanged breaks in the seventh and eighth games, playing a whole bunch of "wowser" shots.
Then Stephens got the final break of Williams' serve in the 11th game and held for the match. The third set took 70 minutes, 16 minutes more than the first two.
Stephens was one of the comeback stories in the women's draw. After a left-foot injury incurred at the 2016 Rio Olympics led to surgery, she returned at Wimbledon with a renewed love of the game, and zero expectations. She lost in the opening round there, and in the next tournament. But then she made the semis of the Toronto and Cincinnati events. At the end of this tournament she will be within the top 35 in the world.
At 37, it's almost inconceivable that Williams could have had this grand of a season in the Grand Slams. She lost to sister Serena in the Australian final. She lost to Garbine Muguruza in the Wimbledon final. And now a semifinal loss at the U.S. Open.
She benefited from a quarter of the draw in which No. 3 seed Muguruza and No. 5 seed Caroline Wozniacki were knocked out. Williams, the ninth seed, didn't have to beat a seeded player on the way to the semis.
Of course Williams is a continuing comeback story, having been diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome in 2011. The energy-sapping immune system condition has never been her excuse.
And there were no excuses last night.
"It was definitely well competed," Williams said. "In the end, she ended up winning more points than I did. That's what it adds up to."
