Last Updated on September 28, 2022
Sloane Stephens is a top-rated American female tennis player with a lot to offer and a potential successor to the retired Serena Williams. She is one of the few black Americans after the Williams sisters that have been ranked among the World’s Top 10 female tennis players. She achieved this ranking on the 16th of July, 2018.
The 29-year-old was born on the 20th of March, 1993, in Florida, United States (US), into a family with a strong athletics history. Her father, John Stephens, was a former Pro Bowl player who played for a team in the National Football League, while her mother, Sybil Smith, was an accomplished swimmer who made history during college.
Sloane started playing tennis at the age of 9 alongside her mother and stepfather at the Sierra Sport and Racquet Club, located just some distance from her home. From there, she continued her training in Boca Raton, where she trained at Evert Tennis Academy before she made her way to Nick Saviano High-Performance Tennis Academy at 12.
Since then, she has risen to become a star, winning a total of 7 Singles career titles, including a Grand Slam and attaining a career highest ranking of 3. She has no Doubles titles and has been ranked as high as 94 under the category.
Current Coach Of Sloane Stephens
Darian King
The current coach and hitting partner of Sloane Stephens is Darian King. Darian is a Barbadian tennis player who is currently ranked 402 in the Singles and 282 in the Doubles. Their partnership grew from their friendship and is looking really fruitful.
Darian has not had an exceptional senior career although his run at the ITF has been quite a feat. He has won a total of 38 ITF titles, including 16 Singles and 22 Doubles. Darian has also represented Barbados at the Davis Cup and holds a record of 40-22 at the tournament.
He has also been able to motivate Sloane to a title, won at the 2022 Guadalajara in Mexico.
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Previous Coaches Of Sloane Stephens
Sloane has spent time with quite a couple of coaches and top ex-players during the course of developing into a professional player. Here are the individuals that have contributed to her growth.
Francisco Gonzalez
Sloane’s first coach was an ex-top 50 tennis player, Francisco Gonzalez, who instructed her at the Sierra Sport and Racquet Club. He was also the one who advised her to pursue a career in tennis before she proceeded to Boca Raton to train.
Francisco was an ex-Paraguay tennis player who retired in 1990 after claiming 10 Doubles and no Singles. He was ranked as high as 34 in the Singles and 22 in the Doubles category.
John and Chris Evert
Sloane took Francisco’s advice at 11 and proceeded to Boca Raton to train. She started training at the Evert Tennis Academy, owned by John Evert and run by his sister, Chris Evert.
Chris Evert was a top ex-tennis player with an incredible record of 89.97% (1309-146) in the Singles (second highest in the history of male and female tennis). She has made the list of the Tennis International Hall of Fame, which is well-deserved considering her 157 Singles titles and 32 Doubles titles.
Nick Saviano
Saviano can be said to be one of those who greatly contributed to the development of Sloane. She started training under Saviano when she left Evert tennis Academy and began training at the Nick Saviano High-Performance Tennis Academy at the age of 12. She spent four years with Saviano before moving on and later reconciled with him in 2015.
Saviano was a former professional tennis player and popular coach known for his long-term relationship with the former world’s number 5, Eugenie Bouchard. He also recorded a Singles title and three Doubles career titles during his time.
Roger Smith
After departing from Saviano for the first time in 2009, Sloane began working with an ex-Bahamas tennis player who turned coach, Roger Smith. Roger, who only recorded three (3) Doubles titles during his career, led Sloane to 3 Doubles Grand Slams titles as a junior player and into the World’s Top 100. Their relationship ended in 2012; David Nainkin
Sloane started working with David in 2012 to help her qualify for the 2012 Olympics; however, she eventually missed out on this. She did not get to qualify for the tournament since only four players were accepted from each country, and she ranked at number 5.
Paul Annacone
She also worked briefly with Paul Annacone and became the first female player to be coached by the famous American coach. Paul is popular for his time with 20 times Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer and 17 times Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras. He currently coaches Taylor Fritz.
Thomas Hogstedt
Similar to the case of Annacone, she also spent some time with Thomas after departing from Annacone. Thomas is an ex-Swedish professional player and coach who has worked with many top players such as Tommy Haas, Magnus Norman, Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Simona Halep, Madison Keys, and Johanna Konta.
Thomas was able to win only a Singles career title before retiring from playing tennis.
After leaving Thomas, Sloane returned to her former coach, Nick Saviano.
Kamau Murray
Kamau is arguably the most successful coach of Sloane so far since he led her to her highest career ranking and five out of the seven career titles she has won. The American coach has worked with Sloane on two different occasions, although the second relationship was not so fruitful.
He worked alongside Othmane Garma while coaching Sloane and worked briefly with Monica Puig before reconciling with Sloane. Kamau also established a Tennis Programme named XS in Chicago. 22 US Open Doubles Finalist; Taylor Fritz was one of the first five players to benefit from the program.
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Sloane Stephens’s achievements with different coaches
We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Sloane Stephens under the guidance of various coaches.
Coaches | Years of Completion | Titles |
Francisco Gonzalez | 2002 – 2004 | – |
John and Chris Evert | 2004- 2005 | |
Nick Saviano | 2005 – 2009; 2015 | 2015 Washington DC Open |
Roger Smith | 2009 – 2012 | – |
David Nainkin | 2012 – 2013 | – |
Paul Annacone | 2013 – 2014 | – |
Thomas Hogstedt | 2014 – 2015 | – |
Kamau Murray | 2015 – 2018; 2019 – 2021 | 2018 Miami Open 2017 US Open 2016 Auckland Open 2016 Acapulco Open 2016 Charleston Open |
Darian King | 2021 – till date | 2022 Guadalajara Open |