Like many kids, Peyton Stearns enjoyed participating in sports and tried her hand at plenty.
“Soccer, gymnastics, basketball, tennis, whatever,” the 21-year-old American said Wednesday at the French Open in Paris after eliminating 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to reach the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Then Stearns paused, before adding with a chuckle: “Well, not so much tennis.”
By her own admission, she picked up tennis relatively late for someone who would end up at its highest level, starting private lessons at age 8. It wasn’t until about three or four years later, the 2022 NCAA champion for the University of Texas explained, that she decided to focus on holding a racket.
“Gymnastics was very structured. I didn’t like that so much. I liked to do what I want when I wanted,” said Stearns, who had never played in the French Open’s main draw until this week. “I chose tennis because I loved that you can just hit the living daylights out of the ball.”
So that’s what she does, and quite effectively against the 17th-seeded Ostapenko, outhitting a big hitter — Stearns compiled more winners, 30-29 — and leaving the field at Roland Garros with just one remaining woman who has won the title there: No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the champion in 2020 and 2022 who plays her second-round match Thursday. Barbora Krejcikova, the 2021 winner, lost in the first round.
“Sometimes I surprise myself with how lethal my ball comes off [the racket] sometimes for my opponents and how it really puts them in trouble,” Stearns said. “Maybe I didn’t realize that earlier on, but playing against top players, I realize that it is true. It comes off pretty heavy and big, and that’s how I play. Definitely helps with confidence.”
Her victory over Ostapenko can be placed alongside a slew of early upsets in Paris, where the sometimes odd bounces of the red clay and the changing weather conditions can contribute to unexpected outcomes.
No. 5 seed Caroline Garcia of France was defeated by Anna Blinkova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, meaning 17 of 32 seeded women already were gone before the second round was halfway finished. In the men’s bracket, No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev bowed out Tuesday against a qualifier ranked 127nd.
“I feel like at Roland Garros, it’s tricky with the clay,” said No. 3 Jessica Pegula, who advanced Wednesday when her opponent, Camila Giorgi, stopped playing because of knee pain after dropping the first set….
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