Peyton Stearns has revealed that she collapsed in the corridor after beating Qinwen Zheng in Dubai.
The world No. 46 upset the Olympic champion in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Stearns had to come back out for another match a few hours later and suffered a heavy defeat to Mirra Andreeva.
Rain wreaked havoc on the schedule in Dubai earlier this week, with play suspended for hours on Tuesday. It meant Stearns’ match against world No. 8 Zheng was pushed back by a day.
The Olympic gold medallist came out firing on Wednesday morning and took the first set. But Stearns forced a decider and broke immediately in the final set.
Zheng started to struggle, calling the physio. She later revealed she had been cramping in her fingers. Stearns sealed the biggest victory of her career, winning 3-6 6-4 6-4.
But she didn’t have much time to enjoy it, returning to face Andreeva in the round of 16. Andreeva needed just 73 minutes to beat her 6-1 6-1.
Stearns has now revealed that she was battling an illness and collapsed in the corridor after playing two matches in one day. The 23-year-old shared a photo of herself on the floor, being attended to by medics.
“Highly don’t recommend having a GI illness & playing 2 matches in a day… not a good combo,” she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Stearns also poked fun on Instagram, writing: “Let the bodies hit the floor.”
Andreeva also played two matches in one day, beating former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova earlier on Wednesday.
After defeating Stearns, she said: “ Yeah, it was tough to play two matches in one day. The rain decided that, so we had no choice.
“Yeah, just tried to stay active after my first match. I’m really happy with my win today.”
Stearns will be hoping to recover in time to play her home tournaments in America. The 23-year-old is set to compete in the ATX Open in Austin next week.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk