Sloane Stephens wins the title in Miami!

The American beats Ostapenko in straight sets. VIDEO

By
Mark Hall
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Sloane Stephens surprises again.

The American won the last edition of the US Open coming absolutely from nowhere after she struggled for long with a foot injury. After that, she couldn’t win a match for 5 months; now Sloane triumphs in Miami after defeating the likes of Garbine Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Vika Azarenka, and Jelena Ostapenko.

The final

Sloane was not the favorite in the final against Jelena Ostapenko as the Latvian was in ominous form after she conceded no sets for the entire fortnight.

The Latvian was determined to be the aggressor, but this time the strategy didn’t work like in the rest of the tournament, and eventually she ended up losing the match after committing 48 unforced errors. On the other side, Sloane managed to extend the rallies as much as possible to commit just 21 unforced errors and basically to force her opponent to mistakes.

Eventually, the match was full of breaks (12 in total) with Jelena able to hold his serve only twice. The American won the contest 7-6 (5) 6-1 after she won the last 6 games.

I knew that I had to run. STEPHENS

Soon after the match, Sloane commented

“I knew that I was just going to have to run a lot of balls down. The way that she plays is she has a very aggressive style, and sometimes you can’t outhit her or outrun her. You just kind of have to accept that she’s going to hit some really great shots.

I think that’s what I did the best today. When she was hitting great shots, I just was, like, ‘Too good,’ and moved on. I think that’s what helped me kind of get through that breaker. I just accepted that some good shots were going to be hit and just didn’t harp on it too much.”

After Miami, Sloane will finally break in the top10 to be ranked no.9 (career high).