Ahead of home tournament, Stearns and McNally show pride in Cincinnati

Walking into her pre-Cincinnati Open press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 11, Caty McNally donned a Reds jersey.

“I’m just a girl from the 513 and I love to support my hometown and the sports here,” McNally, a Madeira native and graduate of Indian Hill High School, said.

Though the jersey was a gift to her from tournament director Bob Moran, it was also representative of the pride McNally has in both her home city and tournament.

Peyton Stearns, McNally’s Cincinnati native counterpart on the WTA tour, had similar sentiments. Both Stearns and McNally said they shared local recommendations to their fellow competitors; Stearns specifically shouted out Tony’s of Cincinnati and Two Cities Pizza as amongst the standout places to go to.

“Trying to show them the little gems that normally ChatGPT can’t tell you about,” Stearns said.

The two players’ pride in their home tournament goes beyond just the Cincinnati city, but also the Lindner Family Tennis Center itself. The Cincinnati Open is in the second year of its new look, following the $260 million renovation that took place before the 2025 tournament. At the 2025 ATP Awards in December, players voted on Cincinnati as the best Masters 1000.

Stearns said she recently spoke to J.J. Wolf, another Cincinnati native set to play in Wednesday’s ATP qualifiers, who told her that the facilities were nearly unrecognizable from when he last played at the tournament in 2024. It’s a sentiment shared by ATP No. 2 Alexander Zverev, who said that Cincinnati’s facilities went from arguably the worst to the best on tour.

“A lot of the tournaments you go to, you want to leave the site at the end of the day. You’re waiting to get out of there, you don’t want to linger around.” Stearns said. “I live here, and I don’t mind staying here all day either.”

The Cincinnati connection

There are four Cincinnati area locals playing in this year’s tournament: Stearns, McNally, Wolf and ATP qualifier Vignesh Gogineni, who fell in straight sets to Otto Virtanen in his Tuesday qualifier match. But not only are they from the same metro area, but they also know each other.

Stearns said that her younger brother Preston, a recently-graduated NCAA tennis player from Ohio State, came to Mason from Columbus to watch his friend Gogineni play. Peyton and Preston Stearns are entered in the upcoming U.S Open mixed doubles qualifying event taking place on Aug. 24.

WTA competitors Stearns and McNally, who are less than two months apart in age, grew up together and went trick-or-treating with each other when they were younger. McNally has hit together with Gogineni in the past, and praised Wolf on Tuesday for recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered in 2025. She also credited her home city for their development of multiple players on the ATP and WTA tours.

“The tennis that’s been produced out of Cincinnati is amazing,” McNally said. “It just shows the depth that we have and that we can produce great players out of here.”

Stearns, McNally focused on building career momentum

Though both Stearns and McNally expressed excitement over their home tournament, they’ve also grown to treat it like any other competition for the sake of remaining locked into their tennis goals.

“As the years have gone by, I’ve learned how to channel and tunnel in what I need to focus on,” McNally said. “Accepting that there’s going to be a lot of outside noise, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to figure out the routines and what works best for me to stay locked in.”

Stearns shared a similar sentiment, saying that it was more difficult to come home earlier on in her career than it is now. She says that her family and friends in the area who want to visit her are now better understanding of the responsibilities that comes with her playing career.

Both Stearns and McNally, ranked No. 54 and 70 in the WTA live rankings, respectively, are in milestone seasons. McNally has reached the second round of three Grand Slams for the first time ever, and made her first WTA 1000 Round of 16 at the Madrid Open. Meanwhile, Stearns had her best Australian Open result ever with a third round berth while also reaching the third round of the French Open. She also won her third WTA title, the 250-level ATX Open in February.

McNally opens play against fellow American and No. 50 McCartney Kessler, while Stearns will take on a qualifier yet to be determined. The schedule for those matches have yet to be determined.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ahead of home tournament, Stearns and McNally show pride in Cincinnati