The 24-year-old has bounced back from injury and disillusion to climb 900 ranking places within two months, a testament to her nous and upbeat approach
She is the unlikeliest player in a most improbable last four but Sloane Stephens’ run to the business end of this year’s US Open feels in many ways right on schedule.
The 24-year-old is one of four American women through to Thursday night’s semi-finals after the top eight women’s seeds were eliminated by the quarters or earlier for the first time at a grand slam in the Open era. None of them, least of all the unseeded and unfancied Stephens, were favored to make it this far.
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