American tennis star, Sloane Stephens decided to stun Nigerians by wearing the jersey of the Super Eagles of Nigeria to train ahead of the 2022 Madrid Open.
The 29-year-old former US Open champion took to her Twitter page with over 244 thousand Twitter followers to share a video of the training session which was held on one of the hard-baked clay courts of the Madrid Open.
¡Venga Madrid! @MutuaMadridOpen pic.twitter.com/xBCEXpJ39M
— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) April 27, 2022
In her effort to acclimatize to the difficult turf of the competition, Sloane Stephens decided to use the opportunity to show his love for the green and white jersey of the national football team of Nigeria.
Her appearance in the jersey sent most Nigerians on Twitter into a frenzy. Some began to wonder whether her ancestral home is Nigeria or whether he has any direct link with a Nigerian.
To give the concerned Nigerians more to talk about, Sloane Stephens took to her Twitter page again to post a picture of herself wearing the Super Eagles jersey. She captioned the picture with emojis of fire and the Nigerian flag.
In the picture, Stephens looks more or less like one of the players of the Nigerian women’s football team due to how well-fitted the jersey is on her.
🔥🇳🇬 @NGSuperEagles pic.twitter.com/M1vXKu4aft
— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) April 27, 2022
She did not stop there, Sloane Stephens who was once ranked third on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking, said via a tweet that she has “a few Nigerian names now”, with a laughing emoji. She added that she wanted to “hear” the names.
So apparently I have a few Nigerian names now 😅 let’s hear them!
— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) April 27, 2022
Her request attracted the attention of a couple of Nigerians who stormed her Twitter page to create some Nigeria-related names for her.
Who is Sloane Stephens?
Sloane Stephens was born on March 20, 1993, in Plantation, Florida to the first African-American woman to be named a first-team All-American swimmer in Division I history, Sybil Smith. Her late father, John Stephens, was a Pro Bowl running back for the New England Patriots in the National Football League.
Sloane Stephens started training to become a tennis star at the age of nine when she was living in her mother’s hometown of Fresno California. Her drive to become a professional tennis star pushed her to relocate to Boca Raton in Florida.
Stephens played her first professional events on the ITF Women’s Circuit in late 2007. In the spring of 2008, she received a qualifying wildcard into her first WTA Tour event, the Miami Open.
The biggest moments in Sloane Stephens’ career started in 2017, a year she won her first and only grand slam, the 2017 US Open.
In 2018, WTA ranked Stephens 3rd which is her highest-ever ranking. She earned the ranking due to her outstanding performance at 2018 Wimbledon.
So far in her tennis career, Stephens have won seven WTA singles titles and WTA currently ranks her 43rd in the world.
Later today, April 28, 2022, Stephens will face Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina in the round of 64 of the Madrid Open.
Sloane Stephens who turned 29-year-old in March 2022, got married to American soccer star, Jozy Altidore. The couple who got engaged in 2019 got married in January 2022.
