it's called pressure... a Serena effect

 

It used to be called the William curse when Venus and Serena took tennis buy storm.

Back then, after an average player get an unexpected win over Venus or Serena, they would be drunk with such delirium and high expectation from the press, that they would buckle under the pressure.

 

Oudin's curse :lol:

 

BELIEVE efect :lol:

 

Lol. I think she is going to fire her coach before or after the French Open. I'm going with after the FO is over, if she performs poorly there.

I can bet money on that.

 

That fluke win over Serena can only take her so far. Now she has to actually play and show her skills and mental fortitude. She looked good against an injured Serena but hype and pressure appear to be her doom. Hopefully she can get it together, she clearly has potential.

 

She shouldnt have beaten Serena in a GS esp. in late stage :lol:

 

Gain too much before she was ready......she is now playing under the weight of expectations.

 

What She Said...or He.

 

Awful attitude + over-inflated ego. She's throwing tantrums / whining in the middle of every match lately because her opponents aren't handing over victory like she wants them to do.

She'll bounce back though, even if it takes a year. She's overranked, but she isn't a hack like some of her recent losses seem to indicate.

 

The problem for Sloane Stephens is she BOUGHT in the USA media hype. Beating Serena at the Australian Open was a double edge sword for Sloane Stephens she bought in the USA media attention that's a tennis star.


Appearing on the Ellen Degeneres show after LOSING in a slam semifinal I think she should have said NO. Sloane is making a lot of money I hear from new endorsement offers and the such. The pressure from the USA media is intense they slammed her for losing to Radwanska even though she's ranked number 4 in the world.

The USA media want a young female tennis superstar NOW but Sloane has so much to prove. The girl has not even won a WTA TOUR TITLE YET. How can the USA media expect so much from someone who has accomplished nothing major?

Sloane hasn't even REACHED a WTA FINAL YET EITHER.

This girl needs a break to regroup for the clay court season in Europe.

 

This "syndrome" happens very often at all levels in tennis. Very often a good young player and their coaches ,parents, advisors etc. make a very big mistake: They have the young talent play up way too often. Their player then fails to learn how to handle the Everything to lose-Nothing to gain pressure situation. In the pro's the up and coming talent can very easily play well when its Everything to gain nothing to lose situation. This is how they become successful at first in the WTA. When you've got loads of points to defend and everyone expects you to win its a different situation and very few players are equipped to handle it. Looks like that is the situation here. I deal with this ALL the time in working with the Good juniors on up to the pro's.

 

She went from being the hunter to the hunted after one tournament and she clearly cannot cope with that change right now.
Kind of like the new girl at school who is finding it really difficult to settle and is being bullied by her classmates

Have to say though that Sloane is doing herself no favours whatsoever with that bratty attitude. It is almost like she is taken by surprise and throws in the towel immediately when a decent challenge is mounted against her. She could not end that match quick enough at the end.
Have to say her coach is waay too soft on her too...he was pussy-footing about her when he came on to court. I think a girl like Sloane needs tough love and telling as it is:shrug:

 

From watching that match Sloane definitely looked lost out there. She has no clue how to handle this new position that she is in. Players coming out the gate trying to beat her, she cant deal with it. Her coaches need to realize this and do something about or as the above post said she will fire them! Although most of that is mental adjustment,but from seeing her today, it really looks like she doesnt know what her motivation is.

 

Used to say, back in the day, "Pressure busts pipes."

She learning a hard lesson in Wanting v/s Having. :shrug:

 

clearly feeling the pressure. Hopefully she'll snap out of it soon...

 

I can see Madison Keys beats her soon.

 

Nothing has really changed her game wise she still is trying to get use to playing at bigger events and being a name now :lol:

 

I disagree there is alot that has changed about her game. She has gotten bagelled 3 times out of her last 3 matches. Those results are out of her character, she normally never loses a set at love. It's a sign that she is not enjoying tennis at the moment. Thats mental. That's pressure.

 

self-destruction

 

Williams curse has been cast on her She's mentally fried :lol: The win over an injured Serena gave

her the illusion that she had arrived in the big leagues. ...when you beat a Williams & talk big, you

know what happens next :lol:

 

Probably can't deal with the pressure of being ranked so high and becoming a target. Much different being the hunted vs hunter.

 

She just needs to fine tune her game. The win against Serena was a clear fluke and she couldn't handle everything that followed. Also, her attitude needs some adjustment. She just said in Miami that she could lose in the first round of the next four tournaments and still be top 30. Who thinks like that?

 

I just hope Madison Keys and Taylor Townsend are taking notes and see how the media & attention can get to talented players. Hopefully when they have their breakout tournaments they will handle it a bit better. Sad day.

 

She has the talent to back up her current ranking but she has many things to work on in her game. That win at the AO QF was unfortunate for her in a lot of ways. She went from being unseeded and a dangerous floater to a top seed with direct entry into any tournament she wants. I really think she has the game to turn it around eventually but this isn't the end of her slump I'm pretty sure.

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:lol:

She's supposedly good on clay so maybe her results will pick up.

 

She's in a horrible slump. During her match today, she started crying while her coach tried to motivate her.

Maybe she is having a hard time dealing with this new found success and she's cracking under pressure.

She a "Big girl" ain't she?

Well, in the wise words of Fergie "Big girls don't cry" :lol:

 

The weight of expectation can either propel a person or hinder them. Its clearly hindered Sloane. I hope she's not going to go into A. Stevenson territory, but she clearly hasn't been able to handle the limelight since the win over Serena at the Australian Open.

 

Needs to have some more motivation, her start to the season was magnificent so she was probably motivating and training right in order to do well there but since then she has become lazy, if she doesn't want to compete at her best everything besides the GS she might as well forget about being a top player, she needs to take each match like its a GS match and be smart.

Stop waiting for an error and stop being predictable, if she starts to show this and works harder the results will come and if they don't and she's still working hard maybe it's another factor like her coach or she's being told the wrong things but for now it's all on wether she really has that motivation and love for tennis.

If she wants to keep play lazily at the smaller events she's never gonna reach the higher rankings especially with her inconsistancy.

 

Needs to have some more motivation, her start to the season was magnificent so she was probably motivating and training right in order to do well there but since then she has become lazy, if she doesn't want to compete at her best everything besides the GS she might as well forget about being a top player, she needs to take each match like its a GS match and be smart.

Stop waiting for an error and stop being predictable, if she starts to show this and works harder the results will come and if they don't and she's still working hard maybe it's another factor like her coach or she's being told the wrong things but for now it's all on wether she really has that motivation and love for tennis.

If she wants to keep play lazily at the smaller events she's never gonna reach the higher rankings especially with her inconsistancy.

This is really spot on. You nailed it. She coming out expecting to win, not working the points, and doesnt seem to have the same drive that she did in January. She just got here way to fast for her own good.

 

Clearly struggling under pressure.

Her Australian Run definitely caught our attention, but of the opponents she had to play, it was quite an easy run, and with Williams more or less injured, it was no surprise she went as far as she did.

Halep easy, Mladenovic that was before her breakthrough tournament, but even since then she hasn't set the tour alight and has struggled herself, Robson many people said Sloane would win and she did, then Jovanovski who had a good run herself.

Sloane didn't have to play another seed until the Quarter Finals against Serena.

Now she is coming up against better equipped players, and players ranked in the top 32 and struggling, like Zakopalova, Cirstea and Aga, while also suffering poor defeats to Urszula and now Mattek Sands.

Think it's a mixture of pressure, and playing better opponents is what she is struggling to deal with.