Stephens details injury rehab, 2026 plans after first round loss to Pliskova

MELBOURNE, Australia -- When asked about her goals for the 2026 season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes Benz, Sloane Stephens kept it short and sweet.

"To play a lot of tennis, whatever that means," Stephens said at her press conference following her Australian Open first-round defeat to Karolina Pliskova. "I don't know where that's going to take me, but be pain free, healthy and win a lot of matches."

In 2025, Stephens did none of those things as her year was derailed by a right foot stress fracture. She played just five matches last season, and did not compete from late February to mid-September as she was recovering. She's dealt with this injury before, just on her left foot. After going through the surgical process on the left foot, Stephens opted out of surgery this time as she said it would have been "career-ending."

"I had the same injury as my left foot, and at my age, it was probably more of a career ending injury if I would have had surgery like I did the first time," Stephens said. "I opted not to and just took the long recovery and tried to rehab it as best possible. It worked, so now we're back."

During her recovery, she would occasionally play tennis throughout, but not a high-intense level until in the final couple months. She was in a boot for the first three months of the process, too.

After returning in September, Stephens competed in just two tournaments in Guadalajara and Tampico, both first-round exits. She's slowly getting back into full health, and started her year at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand before coming to Melbourne. 

Stephens had to go the long way, however, in order to meet Pliskova in the first round. The 2017 US Open champion went through qualifiers -- something she hasn't done since 2011 at the Australian Open -- and won all three matches, including defeating No. 2 qualifying seed Lucia Bronzetti. 

"I don't think you're ever comfortable," Stephens said. "I wasn't even enough if I was ready to play here, so I think it's just a matter of putting yourself out there and seeing how it goes."

The 32-year-old put up a valiant effort against Pliskova, who similar is returning from a left ankle injury that kept her away from tennis from August 2024 to September 2025. Pliskova used her protected ranking to enter the Australian Open. 

Tuesday's match had a unique oddity -- it was the first Grand Slam match between two players outside the top 1000 since 1990 (on record), and a match between two former top three players and Australian Open semifinalists.

"I think that the three matches were super helpful for me since I haven't won a match since 2024," Stephens said. Either way, it was a win for me, and I'm happy that I just came and did it and kind of just got the monkey off my back. and I'm just ready to play again and go to the next tournament."

Stephens said she will will forego the Middle East swing and pick the season back up at the WTA 500 in Merida, Mexico in late February. She also plans to compete at the 1000s in Indian Wells and Miami as well as beginning the clay court swing in Charleston.

"I'm going to do that and see how I hold up, how I get on, and go from there," Stephens said. "I might play a few extras on the clay this year. I'm not sure, depends on where I get in because I'm still on the special ranking. We'll see. Now that the thousands draws are bigger, so I'll be in qualities of those, which is also fine, but it'll be interesting."