{"id":101868,"date":"2025-05-14T22:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101868\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:04:08","slug":"peyton-stearns-does-something-no-other-american-player-has-done-in-45-years-as-she-reaches-italian-open-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101868\/","title":{"rendered":"Peyton Stearns does something no other American player has done in 45 years as she reaches Italian Open semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Peyton Stearns has continued her dream run at the Italian Open by reaching the semi-finals, where she will take on Jasmine Paolini.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/the-american-player-flying-completely-under-the-radar-who-is-being-tipped-to-do-damage-at-the-french-open-by-john-isner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stearns has been backed to shine at the French Open<\/a>, with the clay-court Grand Slam getting underway later this month.<\/p>\n<p>Her fellow American <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/coco-gauff-shares-what-she-thinks-will-happen-if-she-plays-against-iga-swiatek-at-the-french-open-next-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coco Gauff is expecting a tough Iga Swiatek at the French Open<\/a>, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/wta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WTA<\/a> number two having won the last three titles at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, however, both Stearns and Gauff have been enjoying lengthy stays at the Italian Open in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Stearns now faces sixth seed Paolini for a spot in the final, having just knocked out 16th seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"594\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2214361987-1024x594.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images\" \/>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty ImagesPeyton Stearns clinches 45-year American record at the Italian Open<\/p>\n<p>And the 23-year-old has secured a superb feat with the victory, in which she beat Svitolina 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7-4).<\/p>\n<p>As per OptaAce, Stearns is the first American player in the last 45 years to reach all her first three WTA-level semi-finals on clay court.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/wta-italian-open-2025-how-to-watch-top-players-prize-money-predictions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WTA Italian Open 2025 \u2013 how to watch, top players, prize money &amp; predictions<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She headed to the Italian Open on the back of a strong run at the Madrid Open, where the American fell in the last 16 to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n<p>Peyton Stearns makes WTA history as she reaches Italian Open semi-final<\/p>\n<p>Stearns has thus far managed to avoid world number one Sabalenka, but her road to the semi-finals has been hugely impressive.<\/p>\n<p>And as per OptaAce, she has now recorded tennis history, becoming the first player to win three WTA-level matches in a row via a third-set tie break during the Open Era.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/coco-gauff-gives-away-the-reason-why-she-was-able-to-beat-emma-raducanu-so-comfortably-at-the-italian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coco Gauff gives away the \u2018reason\u2019 why she was able to beat Emma Raducanu so comfortably at the Italian Open<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The world number 42 certainly hasn\u2019t given up during her testing matches in Italy, with the calibre of opponents knocked out making her displays that bit more special.<\/p>\n<p>Stearns now faces a huge test against home favourite Paolini, but can take great confidence from her wins against the likes of four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and current Australian Open champion Madison Keys.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>She beat the latter in the round of 32 and the former in the round of 16, with both matches going the distance.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian Open crowd will, however, heavily back Paolini next up, with the world number five also enjoying a strong run in the doubles event on home soil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peyton Stearns has continued her dream run at the Italian Open by reaching the semi-finals, where she will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[25564,18210,79,1068,16,15,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-101868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-italian-open","9":"tag-peyton-stearns","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114508455607303635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}