There are any number of ways to look at and celebrate Sloane Stephens' deferred coming of age in the Washington combined event on Sunday.
This was 22-year-old Stephen's first tour-level win in 84 attempts. She was, by far, the best WTA player not to have won a tournament going into this final.
In crushing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2, Stephens also prevailed in a battle of two of the most volatile, unpredictable -- and, frankly, puzzling -- talents in women's tennis. Stephens was neither prohibitive favorite, nor an underdog free to swing from the heels with nothing to lose.
And then there's this: Stephens has rarely been able to so successfully combine her easy power, her fleet movement, and her composure so consistently from the beginning to the end of a match she was reasonably expected to win.
These are all laudable accomplishments, but the way Stephens marshaled all her resources may have an even greater impact a few weeks down the road at the US Open. For that's when Serena Williams will be striving to complete her historic calendar-year Grand Slam. And these two women have a history that would would cast a clash between them as an electric adventure.
Stephens has always been considered a successor to Williams, although the majority of pundits who once predicted it may not have imagined that Williams would dominate for so long -- or that Stephens would take so long to mature.
The succession theme caught fire when Stephens upset Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open of 2013. But Stephens never did duplicate that semifinal finish in a major (she did make a quarterfinal, and the fourth round on five other occasions), or win that elusive first tour event. She struggled with injuries and, apparently, motivation. Her ranking has fluctuated from a career high of No. 11 to (as of last week) No. 35.
The relationship between the two women has also suffered in the wake of that sensational upset Down Under. In a much-publicized kerfuffle, Serena Williams reacted to her loss to Stephens by tweeting, "I made you." Later that year, in an ESPN the Magazine article, Stephens claimed that her friendship with Serena was over and that the two women no longer communicated. Stephens said, "She's not said one word to me, not spoken to me, not said 'Hi,' not looked my way, not been in the same room with me since I played her in Australia."
Williams took the high road when asked about Stephens' remarks, telling interviewers only that she likes to see African-Americans do well in tennis. Thus, always roots for Stephens, whom she thinks is "cute."
The media tends to make too much of the occasional disagreements these demanding A-type personalities have with each other. But whether there are any hard feelings between the two women or not, the reality is the status of both women in the robust African-American sports community adds an extra layer of intensity to any meeting between them, never mind their potential rivalry.
Williams has beaten Stephens the past four times the women have played. Two of the past three matches, both this year, were relatively close. In their most recent clash, Williams handled Stephens in the French Open 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Of course, it was a one of the most difficult of Grand Slam tournaments for Williams, yet she did go on to win the thing anyway.
This may be a different Sloane Stephens going forward, though. She was ebullient after she won in Washington, and as television commentator Tracy Austin said, "She got the monkey off her back by finally winning a tournament."
It's hard to tell what doors this win may open for Stephens, who said of the way she felt going into the final: "Nothing was stopping me today. I told myself, 'Just play every point, you'll be fine.' I had to focus my butt off today."
If you were charged with coming up with a compelling spoiler for Williams' Grand Slam bid, you could do a lot worse than picking Sloane Stephens. Somehow, I think Serena Williams is aware of that.