Tennis players and business ventures are no alien to each other nowadays. Stars like Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova were the early adopters of venturing into the business world and found tremendous success off the court. Later, players like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka also successfully started their business ventures and now have investments across various fields. Another player who has followed suit is Sloane Stephens. The American tennis star made a big announcement on her business venture a couple of days back, which invited the ultimate praise from Coco Gauff.

Earlier this week, Stephens announced the launch of her personal care brand, Doc and Glo. Taking to her official Instagram handle, Sloane Stephens announced its launch, “Four years of dreams, late nights, early mornings, and a relentless drive to bring something to life that I truly believe in. Today, I’m beyond proud to introduce @docandglo to the world, a brand that has been in the making for what feels like a lifetime.”

As soon as Stephens made the announcement, her post went viral and invited thousands of reactions. Additionally, her fellow players also congratulated her on this wonderful achievement. One among them was Gauff, who commented, “Yesss,” along with a crown emoji, denoting that she has crowned Stephens as the Queen.

Interestingly, Gauff and Stephens’ friendship dates back to the time when the former was still in her pre-teenage years. Stephens even attended Gauff’s 10th birthday party at a water park, and their bond grew by leaps and bounds since that day. Gauff even trained with Stephens’ childhood coach and the duo eventually became best of friends.

Stephens believes that her newly launched brand can be a game changer in the personal care segment. Doc and Glo launched with two products, a deodorant, and a body mist. Although the path was challenging for Stephens, she had the perseverance to launch the brand, something which Gauff was in awe of. The reigning US Open champion couldn’t be more proud of her compatriot and gave the ultimate title of Queen to her. Interestingly, it was the time of the Covid pandemic when Stephens got the idea about this brand.

Covid-19 pandemic was a turning point for Sloane Stephens’ brand

While the world was in lockdown and the sporting world came to a halt during the Covid-19 pandemic, Stephens made the most of her free time. She worked day in and day out on the formulations of the products of her brand and finally came up with a deodorant and a body mist. During the Glossy Beauty Podcast released earlier this week, Stephens highlighted how she prepared the formulations of the two products.

She said, “I custom-formulated every single product. … It was at the time of not being able to shower in the locker rooms [after] practicing and having to go straight from the site back to the hotels, and not having the normal hygiene — things that we normally do on tour. … Normally, you shower right away [and wash off all the sunscreen]. You shower in the locker rooms. … It was definitely something that I worked on during Covid, because I felt like no one should be stinky in Covid.”

Interestingly, the brand is named after Stephens’ grandparents who were very close to her. The launch earlier this week is just baby steps for Stephens’ brand, as she will look to expand her portfolio to more products in her Doc and Glo brand.