History made: Stearns is first player to win three straight third-set tiebreaks

Peyton Stearns made history at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia by edging past No. 16 seed Elina Svitolina in a thrilling quarterfinal match. Stearns rallied to win in a third-set tiebreak, becoming the first player in the Open Era to win three straight WTA main-draw matches in third-set breakers.

Escape artist Peyton Stearns made history at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia with her latest nail-biting victory.

In a late-night thriller that ended just before 1:00 a.m. local time, Stearns became the first player in the Open Era to win three consecutive WTA main-draw matches in third-set tiebreaks.

After seeing a 6-2, 4-2 lead slip through her fingers, unseeded American Stearns rallied from a double-break down in the third set to outlast No. 16 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) in Tuesday's nightcap quarterfinal.

In their first meeting, Stearns took 2 hours and 38 minutes to prevail in the back-and-forth affair, besting former World No. 3 Svitolina, who won the Rome title twice consecutively in 2017 and 2018.

Late-night thriller: Stearns battles past Svitolina in Rome quarterfinals

Stearns will now have to stare down thousands of opponents in the semifinals when she takes on top Italian Jasmine Paolini on Thursday. No. 6 seed Paolini advanced to her first Rome semifinal with a three-set win over No. 13 seed Diana Shnaider earlier on Tuesday.

The rise continues: Currently ranked World No. 42, Stearns is into the first WTA 1000 semifinal of her career, which guarantees her a new career-high ranking in Monday's updated PIF WTA Rankings. It will potentially also garner her a first-ever Grand Slam seeding at Roland Garros.

It has been a tremendous Rome journey for 2022 NCAA champion Stearns (U. of Texas), who is making her tournament debut this year, but has been playing like an Internazionali BNL d'Italia veteran. Coming into the event, Stearns had not reached a quarterfinal this season, but it all clicked into place for her at the Foro Italico.

In her last two rounds, Stearns toppled Grand Slam champions Madison Keys and Naomi Osaka in third-set tiebreaks, setting up her history-making streak. Her upset of World No.6 Keys was her career-best win by opponent ranking.

Now Stearns has ousted one of this season's top clay-court performers in Svitolina. The Ukrainian had won 12 of her 13 WTA matches on clay this year (including a title at Rouen and a semifinal at Madrid) but she could not close out Stearns in Rome.

Stearns had already shown that she can play much of her best WTA tennis on this surface. Both of her WTA singles finals have come at WTA 250 events on clay -- she reached her first final at 2023 Bogota, then won her first title at 2024 Rabat.

Now, she is the first player to make the semifinals at her Rome main-draw debut since Daria Saville in 2015, and the first American woman to do so since Venus Williams in 1998.

Topsy-turvy contest: Stearns is the tournament leader in forehand winners, and she used that shot spectacularly to reel off eight straight games and lead 6-2, 2-0 on Tuesday. Stearns was a point away from leading 6-2, 5-2 before Svitolina pulled back on serve in the second set.

At that juncture, Svitolina ramped up her aggression to match the American’s, and she saved four break points in a crucial hold for 4-4. Suddenly, Svitolina wrested the momentum away from Stearns, and it was her turn to dominate. From 6-2, 4-2 down, Svitolina won the next seven games to lead by a double-break at 3-0 in the third set.

But Stearns doubled down on her power plays, going for even more bold winners, and it paid off as she pulled back on serve. Svitolina reclaimed her advantage at 4-3, but Stearns struck right back, cranking a backhand winner for 4-4.

Svitolina hit two consecutive aces to move into the tiebreak, where she again led 3-1. But Stearns fought back to have the final say, thumping another forehand winner to grab the first match point at 6-4. The American forced a rally forehand from Svitolina long to seal another marathon victory.

More to come...

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