Emma Raducanu kicked off her campaign at the 2025 Canadian Open with a straight-set win over Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
The world No 33 prevailed 6-2, 6-4 against world No 58 Ruse, her close friend, to build on her strong start to the North American hard-court season.
Raducanu defeated Marta Kostyuk, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sakkari to make the semi-finals at the Citi Open in Washington last week. Her run was ended by Anna Kalinskaya.
Peyton Stearns
Peyton Stearns was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States on October 8, 2001 and started playing tennis at the age of eight.
The American played two seasons of college tennis at the University of Texas and became the first Texas player to win NCAA women’s singles crown, as well as helping the Longhorns secure consecutive NCAA team titles.
Stearns played her first professional match in February 2021 and played her first WTA Tour singles match at the Cincinnati Open in August that year.
Having called time on her college career and turned pro in June 2022, Stearns made her Grand Slam debut as a wildcard at the 2022 US Open.
According to her bio on the WTA website, hard-court is Stearns’ favourite surface and she achieved her best major result at the 2023 US Open, where she made the last 16.
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Stearns has reached both of her WTA finals to date on clay, though, losing her first to Tatjana Maria at the Bogota tournament in 2023 and beating Mayar Sherif in her second at the 2024 Morocco Open (both 250 events). She also reached the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 event in Rome in May this year.
The 23-year-old has lost five of her last six matches in straight sets since her quarter-final victory at the Italian Open in May. She was upset 6-3, 6-4 by 45-year-old Venus Williams at the Citi Open last week.
Stearns has beaten two players ranked in the top 10 at the time: Zheng Qinwen and Madison Keys earlier this season.
Currently ranked 37th, Stearns reached her career-high ranking of 28th in May following her Rome run.
Head-to-head
Raducanu leads her head-to-head with Stearns 2-0 having won both of the pair’s previous encounters in straight sets in 2024.
Both meetings were on hard courts, with Raducanu winning 7-6(6), 6-2 in Washington and 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in Seoul.
After the match in Seoul, which lasted a gruelling two hours and 43 minutes, Raducanu said: “I don’t think either of us were playing particularly great tennis.
“It was more of a dogfight. The conditions were very humid so it was a tough two sets. If it had gone to three it would have been very interesting.”
When will the match be played?
The second round match between Raducanu and Stearns is expected to be contested on Wednesday, with the order of play yet to be confirmed.
The post Who is Emma Raducanu’s next Canadian Open opponent? American star Peyton Stearns appeared first on Tennis365.
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