US Open Day 3 Preview and Tips: Back Stearns to take out seed at 11/10

• Stearns is breaking through

• Kasatkina blowing hot and cold

• Back the Ohian at 11/102.11

I have been very impressed by the emergence and steady improvement this season of Peyton Stearns.

The 22-year old Cincinnati native has sparked into life, firing her way to a first career title a couple of months ago in Rabat.

Since that title she has continued to take strides forward, executing her bold, aggressive baseline game during this hard court swing. In current form she is capable of ousting the hit and miss Daria Kasatkina from the US Open.

Stearns knows the buttons to press

This is not the first time that Stearns and Kasatkina will have met this season. Back in January the pair met at the Australian Open, with the Russian finding a way to victory in three sets.

However, it was difficult not to be encouraged by the performance that day of Stearns who showed the firepower to hit through the stern (pardon the pun) defences of her opponent.

Kasatkina is well regarded as a player that likes to control the baseline, her style typically measured and comparable to the tiki-taka football tactic that doesn't apply a great deal of risk but is instead patient and probing as it looks to draw errors from the opponent.

Stearns on that occasion lacked the tactical wherewithal and the temperament to finish points against the experienced Kasatkina.

Roll forward a few months to the French Open and Stearns had found the answer. She showed greater patience in the rallies, matching the control of Kasatkina and using her greater natural power to hit through her opponent's defences. Stearns picked up a well deserved 7-5 6-2 win.

Stearns on the rise

That performance and result is the perfect evidence of a player that is on the rise. There has been a noticeable improvement in her all round game, and she is being rewarded with winning results.

The turning point according to Stearns is when she paired up with British coach Tom Hill, who has been by the American's side since departing from a successful spell overseeing the fortunes of Maria Sakkari.

Stearns said of the partnership, "He has flipped my life around. I thought I was training hard before, but it was nowhere near enough." The influence of Hill is clear as not only did his new charge score an immediate title in Rabat, but unfortunately there has been a noticeable decline in Sakkari's performance levels.

The American is showing good form of late making quarter-final appearances in both Cleveland and Toronto, executing her attacking game with consistency, and she should be hopeful in current form of a decent run at her home Slam.

Her first round win over the always tricky Lesia Tsurenko was impressive, as she demonstrated the attacking formula required to hit through a cautious, controlled baseliner such as Kasatkina.

Inconsistent Kasatkina

For a player that lives and breathes consistency I have been unimpressed by what I've seen from Kasatkina of late.

The Russian's first port of call is consistency, but when in better form she does play with greater freedom and confidently goes for her shots. The problem is that recently this has not been working out well for her.

In defeats to Amanda Anisimova and Taylor Townsend, Kasatkina's efforts to dial up the firepower were self-defeating as when attempting bigger second serves or accelerating through the forehand instead of finding the target she would more commonly add to her unforced error total.

Given that Stearns has shown she has the toolkit to outplay Kasatkina I would argue that this match will be more dependent on what the American brings to court, and there has been enough in her recent outings to suggest that the 11/102.11 on a Stearns win is worthy of consideration.

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