(Paris) Peyton Stearns recorded the biggest win of his career by beating former champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the French Open.
Stearns, a former University of Texas player, turned pro in June 2022.
Ostapenko won Roland-Garros in 2017, but has never been able to get past the third round since that time. The Latvian, seeded 17th in the tournament, was broken five times against Stearns, in addition to racking up 28 unforced errors.
The 21-year-old American continues her rise in the world rankings and showed up in Paris at No. 69, following a strong streak on clay.
Stearns’ win adds to a few other upsets that have come up since the tournament’s opening matches on Sunday.
One of them probably hurt the French public, who saw their protege Caroline Garcia, seeded fifth, bow to the Russian Anna Blinkova, in three sets of 4-6, 6-3, 7- 5.
Already on Monday, Garcia had to work for 2 hours 40 minutes to overcome Chinese Xiyu Wang in three sets and earn her ticket to the second round.
China’s Qinwen Zheng (19th) was also dropped from the tournament after losing to Kazakh’s Yulia Putintseva, who won 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
The third seed Jessica Pegula also continued her journey after taking advantage of the abandonment of Camila Georgi, injured. The American was leading 6-2 when her opponent threw in the towel.
Then, hours after husband Gael Monfils triumphed in five sets on Tuesday’s evening program, Elina Svitolina came from behind to defeat qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Aryna Sabalenka (2nd), Daria Kasatkina (9th) and Élise Mertens (28th) reached the third round with straight-set wins, as did American Sloane Stephens, who corrected Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 6-1 .
On the men’s side, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2. Fifth-seeded Tsitsipas was slow to get going, and he had to work hard for two rounds before he found his bearings.
On the other hand, the favorite, Carlos Alcaraz has an appointment with the Japanese Taro Daniel on the Philippe-Chatrier court, and this duel will be followed in the evening by that between Novak Djokovic and Martin Fucsovics.
