"If you're changing your clothes, what are you changing? What are you doing in there?" - Sloane Stephens on extended toilet breaks
Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens upset 21st seed Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday to advance to the third round of this year's edition. And after the match, Stephens shared her thoughts on the contentious toilet break rule that has been doing the rounds over the last few days.
On Monday, Andy Murray accused World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas of gamesmanship for taking lengthy toilet breaks during their first-round match. That sparked a raging debate in the tennis world, with many players, fans and experts weighing in with their views on the matter.
Murray stirred the pot further with a hilarious tweet the next day, comparing the length of Tsitsipas' toilet breaks to the time it takes Jeff Bezos to go into space. And Stephens retweeted that, making fans wonder whether she endorsed the Scot's take.
Following her win over Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens was asked to comment on the tweet. The American claimed she retweeted it only because she found it "really funny", and that she was a "huge fan" of Murray's.
"I honestly just thought Andy's tweet was really funny," Stephens said. "I didn't see exactly what happened. I'm not sure. I just thought it was hilarious. We all are like huge Andy fans. We love him."
Stephens then made some insightful and thought-provoking comments on the whole issue. The 28-year-old admitted that the rules are frequently abused on the women's side, and called extended toilet breaks a form of gamesmanship.
Stephens went on to express hope for a change in the rules given all the debate and discussion over the past few days.
"I can't speak for what happened in that match, but I do know on the girl's side, there still is a lot of that," Stephens said. "It's gamesmanship. I think there definitely needs to be a rule or changes. They make a lot of rule changes for smaller things, like they took one minute off the warmup. If someone goes to the bathroom for nine minutes, no one says anything."
"There's, like, so many little things that can be changed and looked at. I think that hasn't been done," she added. "I think now that there is a lot of talk about it, people come into press, people tweet about it, whatever, maybe it will get a little bit more attention, that gamesmanship will kind of maybe turn and change a little bit."
Sloane Stephens also believes a time cap is essential to prevent such occurrences in the future. According to the American a long break can change the momentum of a match, which is unfair to the player waiting on the court.
"Yeah, like I don't think you should be gone from the court for, like, I don't know," Stephens said. "Six, eight minutes is a long time to leave a match. That changes the whole momentum of a match. If you're changing your clothes, what are you changing? What are you doing in there?"
"Again, I think there was a rule a couple years ago where girls could only -- it was like a three-minute rule or something in the bathroom," she added. "When you get into six, seven, eight, nine minutes, okay, what are you doing in there? Do you need help? I can come help you. Like, what's happening? I think that's more where the issues are because it just becomes pure gamesmanship."
"She has a really great all-around game" - Sloane Stephens on Coco Gauff
Sloane Stephens also took the time to appreciate the talent of her beaten opponent Coco Gauff. At 17, Gauff already has two WTA titles under her belt and has made the second week at three of the four Slams. Her quarterfinal finish at this year's French Open has been the teenager's best performance at a Major.
Having known Gauff for a long time, Stephens stated she was happy to see how her younger compatriot's game has evolved. The 28-year-old also claimed Gauff's variety and all-round game make her stand out from her generation.
"It's just been really nice to see her game kind of evolve and the things that she's doing, like how she's able to turn so much defense into offense and kind of do those movements," Stephens said. "She is great at the net. She has a really great all-around game. It's been really nice to see."
"She's different from a lot of the up-and-coming players we're seeing now that are just super hard hitting, not much variety," Stephens added. "She has a lot of variety. I think a lot of the younger girls, there's half that are very hard hitting and half that have a lot of variety. I think she's in the bucket with a lot of variety."