The week in tennis: Stephens wins clay-court title, and questions surround Nadal and Djokovic

While speaking to the media during a news conference in Miami last month, Sloane Stephens admitted she didn’t know how much longer she would be playing professional tennis. The 31-year-old said she still had goals she wanted to achieve but spoke about her career largely in the past tense.

But on Sunday, in the final at the inaugural WTA 250 Open Capfinances Rouen Metropole in France, Stephens proved she’s far from done just yet.

The 2017 US Open champion won the eighth title of her career, and first in over two years, with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Magda Linette. It capped off an extraordinary week that saw her defeat former top-10 players Caroline Garcia and Karolina Pliskova. While she had largely cruised into the final — dropping just one set in four matches — she had to dig deep and needed six match points to pull off the comeback against Linette. Ultimately, she got the job done in two hours and 10 minutes.

That magic moment 🤩@SloaneStephens finishes off a brilliant week as the champion in Rouen 👏#OpenRouen pic.twitter.com/0Jdq6tglWU

— wta (@WTA) April 21, 2024

While she has long been known for her prowess on the surface and reached the French Open final in 2018, it marked Stephens’ first title on the red clay and first indoors.

“Coming here was kind of a last-minute decision, so I’m really happy to be through and win another title,” Stephens said. “It’s my first title indoors, I think, so that’s really nice and really cool, and just a really nice way to start off the clay-court swing.”

Today feels amazing 💖 Thank you so much for all the love and support this week! Happy to be holding the title! Clay court szn I’m here 💁🏾‍♀️🏆 pic.twitter.com/9zis0TlSh6

— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) April 21, 2024

Here’s what else you might have missed from around the tennis world last week:

Ruud awakening

Casper Ruud has played in three major finals and been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, but somehow he had never won a title higher than a 250-level, the lowest tier of ATP events. Until Sunday, that is.

In the final at the 500-level Barcelona Open, Ruud defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-3 for his 11th ATP trophy and the biggest title of his career. He had lost all seven of his previous finals at 500-level or higher events, and the win came just seven days after Tsitsipas beat Ruud in the Monte Carlo final, making the triumph even sweeter for Ruud.

“This has been worth all the wait,”…