Stearns topples Townsend in Austin final to claim second WTA Tour title

[p]Fourth-seeded [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/stearns-peyton/YsJXLo1O/"]Stearns[/a], who played two years of collegiate tennis for the University of Texas at Austin, needed two hours and 22 minutes to get past [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/townsend-taylor/Y9jUuHka/"]Townsend[/a], a former doubles world number one who was playing in [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/stearns-p-YsJXLo1O/townsend-t-Y9jUuHka/?mid=ITcDNCrK"]her first WTA singles final.[/a][/p][p]Townsend broke Stearns to open the match, but she was unable to convert a pair of set points in the ninth game and was broken in the 10th as they went to the tiebreaker.[/p][embed guid="8f6c1ae5-0078-4273-9987-63491d13686f" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odu2HWpi9lg" social-type="youtube" /][p]Townsend fended off four set points and had one more of her own before Stearns pocketed the first set.[/p][p]They were all square at 4-4 in the second after an exchange of four breaks, but Stearns gained a decisive break for a 6-5 lead and calmly served it out.[/p][p]The American, ranked 62nd in the world, added the hardcourt Austin title to the claycourt trophy she lifted in Rabat in 2024.[/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="c5983eee-e0b4-4aa5-a887-9b06e09526b6" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="d0158d76-bacb-44de-bb44-82a35f3eb145" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/tennis/wta-singles/austin/"]Catch up on the Austin Open here.[/a][/b][/p]