If Peyton Stearns wasn’t one of the up-and-coming talents continuing to make waves at major tennis tournaments, she would be right at home playing the lead in a made-for-TV afterschool special.
“Don’t be a fool! Stay in School!,” starring Mr. T and Peyton Stearns, airing at 4, 3 Central.
It’s becoming commonplace to see the 22-year-old Stearns, Cincinnati native and University of Texas product, taking selfies and interacting with autograph-seeking fans after victories on the WTA Tour and, in particular, Flushing Meadows. Her win over No. 12 seed Daria Kasatkina in the second round of the US Open marked her fifth triumph in New York over the past two years. Soon after that win on Court 11 and the handshake at the net, Stearns, whose five career wins against Top 20 players have come at either a Grand Slam or a WTA 1000 event, flashed the “Hook em’ Horns” hand sign, the signal synonymous with Texas Longhorns fandom and pride.
As it turns out, when she makes that gesture toward her player’s box and around a few fans in the stands wearing burnt orange shirts (the Texas school color), it also pays homage to higher education and how on-campus life and the frantic nature of college tennis—where up to six singles matches and three doubles matches can go on simultaneously in front of cheering fans as teams accumulate points—made her into the player she is today.
“To me, it’s showcasing college, honestly. I'm representing Texas, of course, with that symbol, but I'm a big advocate for college tennis,” said Stearns, the world No. 47 who has the opportunity to surpass her career-high ranking of No. 43 by the end of the US Open. “I think it's a pathway that a lot of these younger players should consider. You can go for a year to college and leave to go play pro and get an education for life. You can't take that away from someone.”
Stearns was inspired to experience tennis life on the quad by one of the standout players on the WTA tour in 2024, former Virginia Cavalier Danielle Collins, who became a mentor to Peyton when she made the quantum leap into professional tennis soon after winning the 2022 NCAA singles national championship. Stearns had hoped to cross paths with the 2022 Australian Open finalist before Collins lost in her final career US Open match on Tuesday, but their schedules while on the grounds of the USTA National Tennis Center did not allow for that get-together—one of the few things not in sync between the two.
"You can go for a year to college and leave to go play pro and get an education for life. You can't take that away from someone.”
“When I first started out on tour, she kind of took me under her wing. I got to hang out with her in Florida during preseason,” Stearns said. “She's awesome. She's super tight with my family now. The tour will definitely miss her. But luckily I live close to her now. I know she might be moving, but I get to see her whenever I stay in contact.”
A closer look at the remaining draws at the US Open might make one think as much about fight songs as a player's path to the final. Not only do the brackets in singles feature players from Florida (Ben Shelton), North Carolina State (Diana Shnaider) and Virginia ( Emma Navarro, Brandon Nakashima), 75 percent of the players who make up the defending-champion doubles teams at the US Open are also former college athletes: Alabama’s Erin Routliffe, Memphis’ Joe Salisbury and Illinois’ Rajeev Ram. Furthermore, 18-year-old Maya Joint, the American-born Australian and high-ranking junior who qualified for the tournament and won her first-ever WTA-level match by defeating Laura Siegemund in the first round, is a University of Texas commit who will enroll in the fall.
Each player would surely acknowledge how influential their times on campus were in shaping their successful tennis careers, and Stearns hopes that every win she earns on the Grand Slam stage raises the profile and prospects of college tennis.
“I definitely realize the more you win, the more social media engagement you get, more people know who you are. But I think it's huge that when I do win, I'm carrying that cross of college tennis,” Stearns said. “People see me do well, but also not just me. There's Emma Navarro, there's Ben Shelton as well as Danielle who went through it. You see them win and everyone knows that they have college ties, and I think it's just huge that that gets out there more and more and more.”
It’s also huge to change whatever perceptions remain about the quality of play in college tennis.
“I've talked to some juniors and they're just like, `Ah, college, it's going to make me worse.’ But in reality, it teaches you a lot more off of a tennis court than you'd ever learn on tour,” Stearns said.
"And I'm like, ‘No, no, no. Go to college. Please go to college.’"
Some of those future tennis players end up crowding the first row of seats, oversized tennis balls and cell phones in hand, to get a glimpse of their new idol. And when those throngs express their desires to be the next Peyton Stearns, the proud Longhorn and advocate for collegiate tennis assures them that the best way to get ready for the higher learning needed to survive and thrive in the cutthroat world of professional tennis is to find the right institution of higher learning.
“There have been little kids who are probably 14, 15, who after a match are like, ‘I want to be pro like you. I want to skip college.’ And I'm like, ‘No, no, no. Go to college. Please go to college.’"
