Former Longhorn and 2022 NCAA Singles Champion Peyton Stearns returned to Austin for the inaugural WTA250 ATX Open tournament. The tournament is being held at the Westwood Country Club in Austin. Match play began on Monday and will finish on Sunday. 

Stearns faced No. 142 Katie Boulter from the United Kingdom for the first time, resulting in an intense night of tiebreakers that ended in a 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(5) victory for Stearns.

Coming back to Austin after her victory earlier this month at the ITF W60 Rome tournament against Gabriela Knutson, Stearns came into her match against Boulter on a 10 game win streak. 

In a tight first set, No. 137 Stearns and Boulter were head to head throughout, going into tiebreaker rounds after a 6-6 tie. Into the tiebreaker round, Boulter took an early 0-3 lead, but was shortly caught up to by Stearns to tie it 3-3. Ultimately, Stearns took the set in a 7-5 tiebreaker victory, resulting in a 7-6 set. 

The second set brought another intense set of games, where Stearns took the first two games of the set. Boulter ultimately caught up, leading to a strong exchange of games, up to a 6-6 tie that led to another tiebreaker round to end the set. After taking back-to-back points in the tiebreaker round, Boulter only gave up one point before taking the next four points in a row, giving her a 6-1 lead one point away from taking the set. Stearns made an attempt to extend her lead by taking one last point before Boulter took the last point, ending the tiebreaker round at 7-2 and taking  the set in a 7-6 victory.

After two thrilling sets, the deciding third set maintained the same level of aggression and gave two strong performances to end an intense night. 

Stearns opened the first set by taking the first two games back-to-back  to establish a lead. Boulter tied up the set 2-2, and the remaining games were a demonstration of what the night was all about. After exchanging games one after the other, a 6-6 tie was reached one final time, leading to a final tiebreaker round to decide the winner. 

Stearns took an early 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker round, gave up a point, but then increased her lead to 4-1. Boulter shortened the gap and ultimately took over with a 4-5 score going into the deciding moments of the match. To wrap up the night, Stearns won the last three points back-to-back, giving her a 7-5 tiebreak win and a 7-6 third-set victory, claiming the late night glory. 

The night marked Stearns’ first career WTA match win and allowed her to advance in the tournament. She  will play Sweden’s Mirjam Bjorklund on Wednesday. 

Stearns is 17-2 in 2023 and is now riding an 11 game winning streak as she heads into the next round of the ATX Open.