Peyton Stearns' run through the U.S. Open comes to an end in round-of-16 loss

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NEW YORK — One day ahead of her fourth-round match at the U.S. Open with Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, Peyton Stearns started to feel the nervous energy.

The 21-year-old 2022 NCAA singles champion from Texas was about to play the biggest match of her young life in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Open’s No. 2 show court with a capacity of 14,000, and a berth in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament was on the line.

“Starting from (Sunday) the nerves kicked in,” Stearns said. “It just kicked in yesterday. ... I’ve always dreamed about this my whole life, so it kicks in.”

To help her prepare for Vondrousova, a left-hander with a Grand Slam title under her belt, Stearns had her younger brother Preston, a redshirt freshman on Ohio State's men’s team and a southpaw himself, fly in to hit with her.

When Monday morning's match arrived, Stearns came out strong before a pro-American crowd and won the first set before ultimately losing 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. Vondrousova, seeded ninth, won her 11th straight Grand Slam match and advanced to the quarterfinals against No. 17 Madison Keys, while Stearns’ run ended in the round of 16, her best finish yet at a major.

“I mean, there’s a lot of positives, I think. Definitely it's not fun to lose,” Stearns said. “But I think it creates kind of that fire. I’m early in my career. I’m ready to go into the next tournament guns blazing.”

Stearns entered the Open ranked No. 59 in the world and was up to No. 44 in the live rankings Monday. She had won $407,693 in prize money this year and will take home $284,000 for reaching the fourth round. Had she advanced, the former Longhorn would have pocketed $455,000.

Stearns is in elite company, too. One year removed from college, she was among the last four American women playing singles at the Open. Coco Gauff, the No. 6 seed, is into the quarterfinals Tuesday, while Keys, a former U.S. Open runner-up, dominated No. 3 Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-3 Monday.

More: Peyton Stearns is on a track to tennis stardom, wrote Kirk Bohls last year

“I appreciate being upheld to that level and being seen at that level,” said Stearns, adding that her new goal is to be ranked in the world’s top 35. “I think I deserve it. I’ve put in a lot of work, and I think people are starting to recognize that.”

Stearns’s breakout came at the same Open where three American men — No. 9 Taylor Fritz, No. 10 Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton — are into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2005. Stearns feels a bond with the 20-year-old Shelton, a big, athletic lefty who won the 2022 NCAA singles title for Florida before turning pro. He'll face Tiafoe in a quarterfinal Tuesday.

“I just saw him in the hallway, and we just chatted a little bit,” Stearns said of Shelton. “I think it’s a good thing. We feed off of each other. We both won it the same year. It’s pretty impressive to see what he’s doing on the men’s tour and vice versa. So we’re not competing against each other and we’re both American, so I think we’re both rooting for each other.”

Backed by a friendly crowd, Stearns got off to a good start, winning the first set in a tiebreak when Vondrousova hit a forehand long, prompting Stearns to pump her fist and shout, “Yes!”

“It was pretty cool when the crowd was chanting my name,” she said.

Her new coach, Eric Hechtman, previously worked with Venus and Serena Williams, and he told Stearns to try to “play loose.”

“Peyton is playing with house money,” he told USOpen.org ahead of the match. “She’s playing a Grand Slam champ, Top 10 player in the world. So, it’s just a great opportunity to be in the second week, and play somebody of that caliber. So I told Peyton to just play loose.”

At the end of the first set, the stadium roof closed due to rain, and Stearns said she had trouble serving after that.

“When the roof closed, I couldn’t gauge the toss on my serve, and also the nerves don’t help too much in that situation,” she said.

After two sets, her socks and blue dress were drenched in sweat, and she left the court to change. She returned in a maroon dress but quickly got down a double-break at 0-3 in the third set. She broke Vondrousova to get to 1-3. And with fans chanting “Come on, P!” she then had a chance to get to within 2-3 but sailed a crosscourt forehand wide on break point and fell behind 4-1. On match point, she sailed a forehand long and met Vondrousova at the net.

Vondrousova converted 7 of 12 break chances, compared with 4 of 8 for Stearns. Stearns struggled with her first serve, getting 57% in and winning 54% of her first-serve points.

Immediately after the match, she went out to hit some more serves with her coach.

“I can’t have that,” she said of her service troubles.

Looking ahead, Stearns will play the Guadalajara Open later this month and will compete in a handful of tournaments the rest of the year.

When she was at Texas, Stearns would sometimes get down on herself by comparing her career to those of other players about her age who were doing well in major tournaments. Gauff, who reached the 2022 French Open final, is two years younger than Stearns. But Stearns managed to talk herself down from the mental and emotional ledge eventually.

“I kind of got caught up in that at one point in my career a little bit,” she said. “Maybe two years ago or so, I was in college looking at what other girls were doing my age, and I was like they’re making quarters of Slams and I’m here in college.

“But I think the biggest thing for me was everyone takes their own pathway in life, and look where I am now. I’m right where I wanted to be. There’s always a reason why. And I think you just need to trust the process and keep going down my own path.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Texas tennis star Peyton Stearns falls in U.S. Open singles