Sloane Stephens Captures First Career WTA Title In Washington

Sloane Stephens is finally a title winner. The 22-year-old American had never reached a final before until Washington, and in her first title match she played some of her best tennis walloping Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2.

“It’s great to win this first title – I haven’t even thought about my next goal yet,” Stephens said. “First I’m going to celebrate, though! I’m going to the Ethiopian restaurant I’ve been going to all week.

“Last year I was going through a learning process. I learned a lot about myself. And there’s still a lot of room to grow. Sometimes you have to go through the process. To get to this place, to get to this beautiful trophy, I had to go through a lot, but at the end of the day it was definitely worth it.”

Stephens, who beat Sam Stosur Saturday in the semifinals, will move back into the Top 30 with the victory. Until Sunday, she was the only final-less player in the Top 40.

“I just went out there and tried to play the best I could,” Stephens said. “I think I executed my game very well today – it was just a really good day for me.”