This fortnight at the US Open, Sloane Stephens is wowing tennis fans with her spectacular run to the semifinals, so I thought it would be fun to add some cute photos of the American to my Little Tennis Stars series.
Sloane was born in a sporting family. Her mother is Sybil Smith, a former collegiate swimmer at Boston University, and father, John Stephens, was an NFL player in 1980s and 1990s, who was killed in a car accident just before the 2009 US Open.
The 24-year-old Sloane started playing tennis at the age of nine, at the Sierra Sport and Racquet Club, in Fresno, California.