An American champion is guaranteed at the ATX Open for the second straight year after No. 4 seed Peyton Stearns and wild card Taylor Townsend each won their semifinal matches on Saturday.

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Contesting her first tour-level singles semifinal in 13 years since making her main-draw debut, Townsend defeated another fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 7-6(5), 6-3 to set a match with the only seed to reach the quarterfinals in Stearns — who outlasted Australia’s Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to reach her first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz singles final since 2024.

Last year, Jessica Pegula topped McCartney Kessler to assure the WTA 250 event of its first home-grown champion since its inaugural 2023 edition. Ahead of this year’s all-American title tilt, Stearns — who played two years of college tennis at the University of Texas — says it would be “fitting if a Longhorn won this tournament” while Townsend will seek to knock out a second straight hometown favorite after defeating Dallas native Krueger from 4-0 down in the first set.

Townsend’s unlikely run to her first-ever tour-level singles final has seen its fair share of emotions. She saved match point in her first-round win against lucky loser Linda Fruhvirtova, and she also came from a set down to defeat Switzerland’s Rebeka Masarova to reach the final four. Saying after her win against Masarova that she hoped to inspire her 5-year-old son — watching in the stands — to never give up, Townsend also had him on her mind when she took the court against Kreuger.

“Today was actually a really really tough day for me,” Townsend said after the 1 hour and 49-minute win. “It was really emotional because I had to send my son back home so this morning there was a lot of water works on both sides. It was a really tough morning, honestly.

“I was actually really emotional so I really tried to bring everything in and I’m really proud of way I was able to keep calm and keep my emotions in check. Those type of things give me strength. I’m really proud I can continue and the job’s not done yet.”

Townsend lost 12 of the first 15 points against Krueger, and trailed 4-0 in 14 minutes. But she won six of the next seven games — breaking Krueger when she served for the set at 5-4 — to take her first lead, and played boldly to save set point after losing a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak. 

“I came out a little bit nervous. Things weren’t clicking, Ashlyn was playing really well,” Townsend confessed. “It was one of those days things weren’t working. This feels so so good one of the goals I set was to win a tournament on every level. We’re gonna keep going. I’m really excited. I’m pumped.”

Stearns also overcame adversity in her semifinal victory, crediting a late finish to her quarterfinal victory against Oksana Selekhmeteva to “not feeling 100%” against Birrell. But in 2 hours and 8 minutes, she booked a place in her third career final by winning the last five games of the match.

Townsend won the only career meeting between her and Stearns: a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win in qualifying at the Cincinnati Open four years ago.