Two Mason-born, Hamilton-trained women to play in US Open

Aug. 28—Two players in this year's women's US Open main draw have a few things in common. For starters, they're both young; they're both at early heights of their careers; and, perhaps coincidentally, they both hail from Mason and train with the same coach here in Hamilton.

The players, 20-year-old Peyton Stearns and 17-year-old Eleana Yu have taken different paths to get to this converged point, but both will head to New York City this weekend to train with their coach Roland Lutz before playing in the biggest respective matches of their careers: the first round at a grand slam.

For Stearns, the path wound its way to Hamilton about eight years ago when she and Lutz began working together. Lutz said Stearns was a natural heavy-hitter, even at 12 years old.

"Early on, it was harnessing the power, right? How do you keep hitting it hard and not have it fly all over the place?" Lutz said. "As she's played more matches and gotten better and better, she makes more balls and so therefore the power is working."

Lutz said Stearn is able to overpower her peers and the physical side of the game has been Stearn's strength from "day one."

"Her physicality is tremendous, so I think that's what separates her from most everyone, and is what I think can take her as high as she wants to go," Lutz said.

A few year's into working with Lutz, Stearns entered a tournament against the best 18-year-old girls single players in the midwest — Stearns won the whole thing. She was 14.

Lutz describes that feat as "pretty unheard of," for someone so young and said Stearns has been a standout player since.

Stearns eventually went to the University of Texas for two years. In those years, the team as a whole won nationals back-to-back and Stearns won the national singles title as a sophomore.

That NCAA singles championship win got her into the main draw at this year's US Open and was the final match she'll play at collegiate level. Stearns decided that the rest, for her, is at the professional level.

Yu, who just started working with Lutz a few months ago, will be playing her first match in a grand slam before she can even enter college. Before Lutz, Yu trained in California before officially training at the United States Tennis Association's (USTA) national campus in Orlando.

"She's a Mason girl and wanted to come home and stay closer to home and train," Lutz said. "We'd been working together, and as it turns out, she had a big tournament."

The tournament was the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 18s National Championships, again consisting of the best girls in the country ages 18 and under.

"That was one of those where, if you win it, you get an opportunity to play in the main draw of the US Open," Lutz said. And, as it turns out, Yu won it.

While Stearns is a heavy-hitter with her own obvious track record of mental fortitude on the court, Lutz describes Yu as a mix of finesse, mobility and determination, and added that there "... couldn't be two more opposite players, quite frankly."

"Eleana is an extremely good fighter, extremely technical, moves extremely well and is very intelligent out there," Lutz said. "And, technically, she has some great shots, but I think her strengths are somewhat of her mind and her desire to win."

"Those are difficult things to teach. You either have that internally or you don't," Lutz said.

For both players, the talent is obvious, but Lutz said it takes much more than that to get to the highest level of competition like Stearns and Yu have.

"It's a lot of hard work on their part. I mean, it's hours and hours and hours of training, physical training, tennis training," Lutz said. And now, both players are showcasing their determination at his own center, Riverside Athletic Club.

"It's cool for the other kids in the club that are aspiring to reach a certain level — that they can see that. It's hard work, you don't just show up and magically get to do these things," Lutz said.

To have both Stearns and Yu at his club, or even in Hamilton at all, or even in the region at all, is a special scenario.

"For most facilities, probably even some of your larger academies in the world, to have two players in the main draw — there's only 128 — and to have two of them training in Hamilton, OH from living in Mason is pretty crazy, really," Lutz said.

The players will both play in the first round this coming Monday. Stearns' match is against the 28th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, a Russian 27-year-old with lengthy professional experience.

Yu is matched up against fellow American and 29th seed Alison Riske-Amritraj, a 32-year-old who's cracked the top-25. Riske-Amritraj is Yu's senior by 15 years.

Yu might not feel too intimidated by her opponent's track record, though — she was ready to face a great.

"Eleana specifically has said she'd love to play Serena," Lutz said. "I think she'd love to be in that environment and in that opportunity, and [it's] quite frankly not a bad matchup either."

Lutz said in his 35 years of coaching, none of his players have gotten to this point.

"I mean, I'm pinching myself," Lutz said. "You might get one once in a while, but to get two is pretty neat. I'm enjoying the moment."

For both Stearns and Yu, this tournament has the potential to shape their early careers. For Stearns, a good showing would be an impressive start to her professional career, and a run for Yu — who is currently undecided on where she'll play tennis next — could impact her options moving forward.

But, different career positions aside, their ambitions are the same.

"Both of these young ladies are aspiring to be at the top of the game, and I don't see any reason why either one couldn't be there," Lutz said. "That's why they're playing the game."