Stearns battles past Tomova into Rabat final; faces Sherif for title

Peyton Stearns of the United States and Mayar Sherif of Egypt took very different semifinal paths into Saturday's Grand Prix Son Altesse Royale La Princesse Lalla Meryem singles final.

Stearns had to grind her way into the championship match, battling for 3 hours and 15 minutes before squeaking out a 6-7(6), 7-5, 7-6(4) victory over Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova. Stearns fought back from 4-1 down in the third set to prevail.

Sherif followed with a clinical 6-0, 6-1 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova in just 61 minutes. With the win, Sherif set up her first career meeting with Stearns, where the victor will claim the Rabat trophy.

Epic wins for Stearns: Entering the semis, Stearns had already survived one narrow escape this week. In Thursday's quarterfinals, the World No.81 came back from 5-0 down in the third set to defeat defending champion Lucia Bronzetti, saving two match points in the process.

Friday's comeback wasn't quite as dramatic, but it was also topsy-turvy, and the longest match of the tournament thus far. Tomova had set point at 5-4 in the opening frame, but she needed to wait 20 more minutes before clinching the one-set lead in the tiebreak.

Stearns found a plethora of winners to lead 5-2 in the second set, but Tomova fought all the way back to 5-5. However, a Tomova double fault handed the break back to Stearns, and the American tied up the match with a forehand winner down the line on set point.

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In the third set, Stearns methodically chipped away at Tomova's 4-1 lead, slamming a backhand winner to break for 4-3, then consolidating for 4-4 with an ace.

The first six points of the decisive third-set tiebreak went against serve, and an error-forcing return gave Stearns a key 5-4 lead. Stearns prevailed in a rally to set up double match point at 6-4, where a Tomova return went long to end the encounter.

Stearns will be seeking her first WTA singles title in her second career tour-level final. The 22-year-old was a finalist at 2023 Bogota but lost in the championship match to reigning titleholder Tatjana Maria.

Sherif sweeps: As for Sherif, her dominant semifinal win was par for the course in Rabat. The 28-year-old Egyptian has not dropped more than three games in any of the eight sets she's played this week.

On Friday, World No.66 Sherif won 82 percent of her first-serve points and an even better 83 percent of her second-serve points. Sherif did drop serve once, but she never let Rakhimova hold, converting seven of her 12 break points.

Sherif is into her third career WTA singles final, and she is 1-1 in her previous finals. She finished runner-up to Andrea Petkovic at 2021 Cluj-Napoca, then captured her first career WTA singles title by beating Maria Sakkari in the 2022 Parma final.