Back in January, following her loss to Serena Williams in the quarter-final at Brisbane, Sloane Stephens was gushing about her supposed childhood idol and how much she loved her. "She's so sweet," Stephens said at the time. "No, I love her. Obviously she's been a really great influence in my tennis year career ... I love her to death. She's amazing." A few weeks later, the two Americans met again in the quarter-final of the Australian Open and Stephens scored a stunning upset that has pushed her into the media spotlight. <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/sport/tennis/sloane-stephens-is-struggling-to-handle-attention-following-win-over-serena-williams">But the script has since gone wrong</a> with Stephens, 20, winning only two of her nine matches and getting one walkover. In an interview published in ESPN The Magazine, Stephens has launched an astonishing criticism of Serena and talked about her deteriorating relationship with the world No 1 since that win in Melbourne. "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," Stephens said in an interview conducted in March. "And that should tell everyone something, how she went from saying all these nice things about me to unfollowing me on Twitter." Stephens's mother, reportedly, tried to stop her midway through that attack, but she refused. "Like, seriously. People should know," Stephens said. "They think she's so friendly and she's so this and she's so that - no, that's not reality." According to Stephens, Serena not only unfollowed her on Twitter but also put out a tweet after her loss in Melbourne, saying: "I made you". Stephens insists Serena has played no part in her career. "For the first 16 years of my life, she said one word to me and was never involved in my tennis whatsoever," Stephens said. "If you mentor someone, that means you speak to them, that means you help them, that means you know about their life, that means you care about them. Are any of those things true at this moment? No." Stephens has also debunked the notion that Serena was her idol, claiming her favourite player was Kim Clijsters. Wonder if Clijsters would have approved of such an attack on a fellow professional, but Stephens, it seems, needed to get this off her chest. Hopefully, she can now focus on the tennis and live up to her promise. Follow us