No. 4 seed Peyton Stearns captured her second career singles title by taking down fellow American Taylor Townsend in the ATX Open final, 7-6 (8), 7-5 on Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas.
In a grueling two-hour, 22-minute match, Stearns was able to outlast Townsend by hitting eight aces and saving four of seven break points. Stearns was an All-American and national singles champion and part of two NCAA team titles at the University of Texas in Austin and thrived with the faux home-court advantage.
In the first set, Stearns was broken on her very first serve and faced a double set point down 5-3. She saved both set points and then proceeded to win 10 of the next 11 points. Despite failing to convert four set points of her own during the tiebreak, Stearns sealed the deal after saving another Townsend set point to steal the first set.
Merida Open Akron
Spain's Cristina Bucsa capped her dream run as she bested Poland's Magdalena Frech 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to claim her first-ever tour-level title in Merida, Mexico.
After upsetting top-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in the semifinal, Bucsa converted five break points and 32 of her 43 first service points (74.4%) against Frech. She came out hot by taking Frech's first serve of the match and, even with getting broken once herself, cruised through the first set.
Bucsa dropped her first set of the entire tournament in the second, but bounced back in the decisive third set by jumping ahead to a 4-1 lead. She had a chance to win the match on her own serve, but Frech broke her. Bucsa then broke her back on the very next service to seal the match and the title.
--Field Level Media
