An American champion is guaranteed at the ATX Open for the second straight year after No. 4 seed Peyton Stearns and wild card Taylor Townsend each won their semifinal matches on Saturday.
Austin: scores | Giveaways | order of play
In her first tour-level singles semifinal in 13 years since making her main draw debut, Townsend defeated fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 7-6(5), 6-3 to set up a match with the only seed to reach the quarterfinals in Stearns, who edged out Australian Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to reach her first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz singles final since 2024.
Last year, Jessica Pegula bested McCartney Kessler to secure the WTA 250 event its first local champion since its inaugural edition in 2023. Ahead of this year’s all-American title fight, Stearns, who played two years of college tennis at the University of Texas, says it would be “fitting if a Longhorn won this tournament,” while Townsend will look to eliminate a second straight local favorite after defeating Krueger, a native of Dallas, 4-0 down in the first set.
Townsend’s improbable run to his first tour-level singles final has seen its fair share of emotions. She saved a match point in her first round victory against lucky loser Linda Fruhvirtova, and also came back from a set down to defeat Switzerland’s Rebeka Masarova and reach the semi-finals. After her win against Masarova, she said she hoped to inspire her 5-year-old son (watching from the stands) to never give up, Townsend also had that in mind when she took the court against Kreuger.
“Today was actually a really tough day for me,” Townsend said after the 1 hour, 49 minute win. “It was very emotional because I had to send my son back home, so this morning there was a lot of water work on both sides. “Honestly, it was a really difficult morning.
“I was actually very excited, so I tried to give it my all and I’m very proud of the way I was able to stay calm and control my emotions. Those kinds of things give me strength. I’m very proud that I can continue and the work is not done yet.”
Townsend lost 12 of the first 15 points against Krueger and trailed 4-0 in 14 minutes. But he won six of the next seven games (breaking Krueger when he served for the set at 5-4) to take his first lead, and played bravely to save set point after losing a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker.
“I came out a little nervous. Things weren’t clicking, Ashlyn was playing very well,” Townsend confessed. “It was one of those days when things weren’t working out. This feels so good that one of the goals I set for myself was to win a tournament at every level. We’re going to keep going. I’m very excited. I’m fired up.”
Stearns also overcame adversity in her semi-final victory, attributing the late finish to her quarter-final victory against Oksana Selekhmeteva to “not feeling 100%” against Birrell. But in 2 hours and 8 minutes, he earned a spot in the third final of his career by winning the final five games of the match.
Townsend won the only career meeting between her and Stearns: a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in qualifying at the Cincinnati Open four years ago.
