Andreeva outlasts Azarenka in Paris late-night showdown; meets Stearns next

Rising teenager Mirra Andreeva clinched a spot in the Roland Garros third round for the second straight year by overcoming former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in a late-night stunner on Friday morning.

In the last match of a long day filled with rain delays, 17-year-old Andreeva successfully completed the third-round lineup with a 2-hour and 31-minute victory over No.19 seed Azarenka. The match ended just after 1 a.m. local time in Paris.

Andreeva, last season's WTA Newcomer of the Year, has already collected five Top 25 wins this season, including in half of her last six matches -- she also beat Marketa Vondrousova and Jasmine Paolini in Madrid a month ago.

The teen had to battle two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka to the bitter end in their first meeting. In the final set, Azarenka was down a break at 1-0, 4-3, and 5-4 (when Andreeva served for the match), but the veteran stormed back on serve on each of those occasions.

However, an undeterred Andreeva fired a backhand passing winner down the line to break again for 6-5. Serving for the match for a second time, Andreeva held triple match point at 40-0, but Azarenka kept fighting as hard as she could, pulling back to deuce. 

Andreeva, though, grabbed her fourth match point after a long forehand by Azarenka, and that one was converted once Azarenka misfired on a service return. All told, Azarenka broke serve nine times, but Andreeva edged her with a 10-for-13 break point conversion rate.

World No.38 Andreeva will try to make the Round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the third time in her young career when she takes on another surging player, Peyton Stearns of the United States, on Saturday.

Andreeva and Stearns have faced off once before, with Stearns winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of WTA 1000 Dubai in February.

Stearns upset a seeded player on Thursday night as well. The 22-year-old Stearns dismissed No.10 seed Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 6-2, and she also booked a third-round spot at Roland Garros for the second consecutive year.

The victory extends Stearns' winning streak to seven straight matches -- she won her first career WTA singles title last week in Rabat, and has risen back up the rankings to World No.62.

Stearns earned her second career Top 20 win by toppling 13th-ranked Kasatkina. Stearns' first Top 20 win came exactly one year ago, when she upset Jelena Ostapenko in the same round in Paris.

Ironically, after beating Ostapenko last year, Stearns was routed by Kasatkina in the following round, 6-0, 6-1. But it was a different story in the 2024 rematch.

On Thursday, Stearns was stronger returning second serves, winning 11 of those 17 points on the day (65 percent). That allowed the American to convert six of her eight break points in the 88-minute win.

Stearns barely got through her opening match this week, needing a third-set 10-point tiebreak to outlast qualifier Lucija Ciric Bagaric. But she has survived and will attempt to make a Grand Slam Round of 16 for the second time. She reached that round at last year's US Open.