Fast-rising American takes it all in her stride after upsetting former champion
©Andre Ferreira/FFTPeyton Stearns has stared down heaving stands spilling with raucous college rivals, baying her name, willing her to collapse under the strain of team competition.
The American quickly realised she needed a thick skin if she was to stand the heat.
“The toughest was Oklahoma State,” the 21-year-old and last year’s NCAA singles champion said.
It held the former University of Texas star in good stead for her transition to tour life and her Grand Slam main draw debut in Paris this week, where she first toppled Katerina Siniakova then faced her biggest test before the full and intimate surrounds of Court 14.
There she handled all the ebbs and flows of a pumped-up French crowd and all that a former champion, Jelena Ostapenko, threw her way.
The college route had prepared her well.
“You would go to some away matches and it got very rowdy. The other sports teams would come out, the women's soccer team, the basketball, the football team, and they'd come out and be cheering against and you're out there alone and there's no one cheering for you,” Stearns recalled.
© Philippe Montigny/FFT“So I think it prepared me a lot for matches where maybe… I don't have anyone except my team, but I feel like I'm used to it a little bit. Like today, they were doing the wave. I love that. It was awesome. It reminded me of college, so I thrive off that kind of energy.”
In fairness, Stearns won over more than just her team with her powerful display against one of the tour’s heaviest ball-strikers.
Her 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 triumph – her first showdown against a top-20 opponent, no less – booked a third-round berth against last year’s semi-finalist Daria Kasatkina.
To suggest Stearns had shot up the rankings from nowhere would do a disservice to her back story.
Despite possessing hefty weapons in her game growing up, she conceded her results never particularly stood out.
©Andre Ferreira/FFT“I was always going to college,” Stearns said. “My parents were huge on that, especially with what the colleges were offering me where I could go to school and I could leave after a year or two and try going pro and then if it doesn't work out, I can go back and get an education and it's on their dime… My parents are very, like, ‘You're going. Unless you're top 50 in the world you're going’. I wasn't really close to that so I went.”
Already assured of cracking the top 60 after Paris, Stearns is now close.
©Philippe Montigny / FFTThe numbers alone leading into Paris were impressive.
Having only turned professional last June, she began the season outside the top 200 but arrived as the world No.69 following four ITF finals, including two titles, and her first runner-up at tour level, to Tatjana Maria in Bogota.
“I think I expected this out of myself,” she said. “Maybe not this early in my career. I just left school a year ago and I thought leaving school maybe I'd be in the qualifying for this event with my ranking, not even getting in the main level and winning two rounds.
“So I think I'm ahead of what I projected myself doing, but by no means cutting myself short.”
ROLAND-GARROS
20 May - 9 June 2024
