Growing up, Sloane Stephens always wanted to learn from a pro tennis player.
The 2017 U.S. Open champion, who made it to the quarter finals at this year's French Open, remembers seeing retired players at a United States Tennis Association camp, but no current players who could impart their wisdom on her.
"I would have loved to be around a pro player and meet a pro player and, you know, just be in their presence and see how they are and just kind of see how they do things, interact and train, work out and all these things," she told GBH News. "It's just something I always wanted to give back."
For the first time, Stephens brought that spirit of giving back to Boston, where she, along with the United States Tennis Association, hosted the Sloane Stephens Foundation Invitation Training Camp at Sportsmen's Tennis and Enrichment Center in Dorchester over the weekend.
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Around 15 players who aspire to play tennis in college, but don't have access to the finances often required to climb the tennis ranks, attended the camp. The group included Yana Volkova, 16, from Brookline and Jhianna Barnes, 14, from Dorchester. For both, it was their first chance to meet a pro player of Stephens' stature at a training camp. It was a bit intimidating, they admitted.
"Like, I was nervous when I first met her, to be in her presence, like she's such an amazing player," Barnes said.
But that nervousness wore off quickly, as students got to hear from Stephens about the importance of confidence on the court and how to handle their brands and represent themselves.
Both Volkova and Barnes have hopes of playing in college one day, and for Stephens, being that role model of success is crucial.
"So that's why at every camp I'm here, I'm here all day long, I interact with the kids, I hit with the kids, I play with the kids, I talk to the parents and that's just something for me I wish I had, so I kind of just replicate the vision of what I wish I had when I was 15 into what these kids get now when they come to these camps," Stephens said.
STEC CEO Toni Wiley said that someone like Stephens giving up her time to show the younger generation of players what it takes to compete at the highest levels of the game is huge.
"So for us, this is what we're about," Wiley said. "We want kids to have access to everything they need to be able to reach their best, whether that's college tennis, whether they go out on the circuit, whatever it is, we want to equip them with that capacity."
The camp was also something of a homecoming for Stephens, who moved to the Boston area earlier this year when her husband, soccer player Jozy Altidore , joined the New England Revolution. But her Boston connections run even deeper: Her mom, Sybil Smith, is regarded as the best swimmer in the history of Boston University and her father, John Stephens , was a running back for the Patriots.
Now, Stephens says she plans to continue to build her relationship with the Boston tennis community and highlight places like Sportsmen's, which was the first indoor non-profit tennis club built by and for the Black community in the country.
"These types of clubs aren't getting that recognition, especially in the area that they are in. So I like to make sure that they get the opportunity, they get the recognition" she said.
"And it's not that people don't want to play here, it's just you don't know about it until you're here," she continued. "If you didn't live in Boston, you didn't live in Dorchester, you're not from the area, you wouldn't know about Sportsmen's and the amazing things they offer. ... Spotlighting these types of facilities is important."
