Peyton Stearns shakes off 5 match-point misses, and a premature celebration, in "wild" Roland Garros victory

PARIS—Peyton Stearns has a flair for the dramatic.

The 22-year-old American won the WTA 250 title last week in Rabat, Morocco, despite trailing 0-5 in the third set of her quarterfinal with Lucia Bronzetti. Down as big as can be, the former Texas Longhorn star put a touchdown on the board, winning seven straight games and saving two match points en route to unlikely victory.

That fact, and what took place a few days later in Paris, perhaps bodes well for her Roland Garros prospects.

Leading Lucija (there’s that name again?) Ciric Bagaric on Tuesday, 6-3, 5-4, 40-15, Stearns struck four consecutive faults: two match points gone. After being broken in that game—and again at love at 6-5—she would earn three more match points in the tiebreaker. She failed to convert any: five match points gone.

Meanwhile, drizzle which had disrupted the day's schedule returned, just in time for Stearns to walk over to her chair after she had improbably lost the second set. Typically a picture of composure, Stearns talked to her racquet and threw her arms toward the gloomy, grey sky.

"I definitely let out some negative things on the changeover to myself," said Stearns afterward. "I think [the rain] was definitely in the back of my mind a little bit. Didn't help the stressy-ness and tightness at all."

It would have been easy for Stearns to throw in the towel after all that.

Remarkably, though, Stearns exhibited enough mental fortitude to again emerge on top.

"Had a lot of wild ones lately," were her first words to TENNIS.com in Paris.

How wild? Stearns trailed by breaks at 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 of the third set, the latter after Ciric Bagaric won a 10-plus minute game. The Croatian—ranked 184th, but who boasted a 25-5 record in 2024, mainly earned at lower-level tournaments—had her own chance to serve out the match at 5-4.

But if it could happen to Stearns, it could happen to her opponent. Turning the tables, Stearns broke Ciric Bagaric when she absolutely had to.

"I competed the whole third set," Stearns said. "I found a way, and that's the most important thing at the end of the day."

Stearns thought she won the match when she reached seven points in the third-set tiebreaker, she confessed, but actually won it when the score read 6-3, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (6).

"I was like, OK, guess you just gotta win again," Stearns told Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim after the match about her premature celebration.

It seems that no matter what Stearns does lately, she finds a way to win, though she'll surely need to be sharper against world No. 10 Daria Kasatkina in the second round.

"Staying calm, trusting myself in big moments," Stearns said. "It's paying off for me lately ... I fully believe in myself."