In ESPN The Magazine's May issue, Marin Cogan profiled the young tennis phenom Sloane Stephens.
Stephens absolutely trashes Williams in the interview, saying Williams hadn't spoken to her since they played (and Serena lost) at the Australian Open. The story went viral and ended with the two allegedly patching things up.
Now, Stephens told Sports Illustrated she is "really disappointed in the lady [Cogan] who wrote it" because she thought they were off the record. Stephens said of her interview with Cogan:
"We were eating pizza! I understood the fact that those things weren’t going to be written in the article and I was just saying whatever. The person who wrote it just kind of took that and ran with it. That’s what they’re going to do."
But Cogan said it was very clear that the conversation the two were having was on the record. In an email to SI Cogan wrote:
“When I sat down with Sloane and her mother at the pizza place, I asked — as I always do with my interview subjects — ‘Do you mind if I record this? I just want to make sure I don’t miss any quotes.’ And she said she didn’t mind. After the tape recorder started rolling, we had lunch and I conducted the interview. She discussed Serena throughout the lunch (not before) ...
“At no point during our time together or afterward did Sloane say anything was off the record; nor did she ever express any confusion at any point about the interview. Personally, I appreciated that she was so refreshingly honest in it.”
It has basically come down to he said, she said, at this point but Stephens says she is going to be more careful from this point on when she is being interviewed.
We're still waiting for that Williams-Stephens match up at the French Open.
