When Peyton Stearns was little, growing up in Mason, Ohio, she was playing wiffle ball in a neighbor's yard.
Her neighbor noticed that Peyton had a good arm and solid power for her age.
"And my neighbor told my mom, 'you should put her in softball,'" Peyton said. "And my mom goes, 'I'm not a fan of the outfits.' And then my neighbor, who played tennis, said, 'you should put her in tennis, they have some really cute skirts.'"
That's how it started. Since then it's taken the 19-year-old to the University of Texas where she won a Division I NCAA team championship last season, and now it's brought her back home this weekend for her first career appearance in the Western & Southern Open.
Peyton was awarded a wild card into the women's singles qualifying draw from the tournament that's five miles away from her childhood home.
"That kid has wanted to be in Cincinnati since the day she stepped on the court," her mom, Denise, told The Enquirer this week. "I don't know if you saw that picture of her when she's with Christina McHale ... when she got to do the coin toss (at the W&S Open) – she's wearing flip flops and a sundress, and she's got her little glasses on. It's so funny.
