When Russian bombs drove the family from Odesa in 2022, Mariia Vainshtein’s life narrowed to one urgent need: survival. Her mother, Anzhelika Kotlyantseva, remembers her first impression of the United States in a single word. “Safety.”

Kotlyantseva left her husband behind because men were forbidden from leaving Ukraine. “We left my husband and I didn’t know when I might see him again, or if I’d see him again,” says Kotlyanstseva, who was an elementary school teacher in Ukraine. “I left my house, and it took me four days to get here. Once I was here, I felt safety for me and my daughters.” The family traveled through Moldova, Romania and Turkey before arriving in the Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn.

For 13-year-old Mariia, the invasion upended school and routine. She recalled asking a teacher about the possibility of war. “She said she didn’t think a war was going to start, because she knows history,” Vainshtein says. “I was scared for my life—like, what if a bomb is going to drop on my house?” Mariia says. “But I was also scared for my future, because I understood there wouldn’t be one in Ukraine after the war.”

Tennis, prescribed years earlier to help her focus her eyes, became a refuge in a new country where she initially found school and language barriers isolating. “It was very lonely here at first,” she says. “I was just hanging out with my mom and my aunt and their friends.” Faced with advice to return to Ukraine to learn English, Mariia responded, “That’s crazy. I can’t go back to Ukraine. There’s a war on.” Instead she gravitated to the Bronx, to the Cary Leeds Center and the Scholar Athlete Program run by New York Junior Tennis and Learning.

Cary Leeds provided free tennis and academic instruction at its 22-court facility and roughly 100 enrollees as of 2026. “I see how her thoughts change,” Mariia’s mother, Anzhelika, says. “They help kids to believe in themselves and grow.” Mariia credits the program and her coaches with improving both technique and purpose. “Before I just used to hit the ball, and that’s it,” she says. “No mental game behind it. Now I’m thinking about it more than I used to.”

Her coach, Rob Cizek, noted progress. “She’s a pretty stubborn player,” Cizek says. “She likes to take the ball early. When I met her, she didn’t put much thought into who she’s playing and how to make them uncomfortable. Now she’s developing other strokes, adding variety, adding some slice and spin to her second serve.”

A senior at James Madison High School, Vainshtein led the girls’ tennis team to its first Public School Athletic League title in 46 years and hopes to play in college next year. She also placed on a team that finished second in New York State’s We the People competition. “I’m really good with American history because everything is so connected and so straightforward,” she says. “It’s never changed. There’s just one constitution the whole time.” For Mariia’s mother, safety was the priority; Cary Leeds has helped turn survival into opportunity.

Two years after her first WTA singles title in Rabat, Peyton Stearns collected a second trophy much closer to home by winning the ATX Open. The former University of Texas standout had lost in the first round of her adopted home event in each of the last two years, but completed a goal she has pursued since the WTA 250 was added to the calendar in 2023.

In 2023 she won her first WTA main-draw match in Austin and reached the quarterfinals as a wild card less than a year after lifting the NCAA Division I national singles trophy. This week she snapped a three-match skid at the tournament by coming from a set down to beat Brit Francesca Jones in round one.

After that match Stearns admitted that she thought “it would be nice for a Longhorn to win this tournament, finally.

“So hopefully I’m the first,” she said.

Stearns won three of her five matches in three sets. In the final she saved a trio of set points in the opening set before closing out a 7-6(8), 7-5 victory over Taylor Townsend. Townsend was contesting her first tour-level singles final at the age of 29.

Townsend had earlier erased a 4-0 first-set deficit in the semifinals against Ashlyn Krueger. In the title match Townsend held two set points on return at 5-3, and after Stearns rallied to force a tiebreaker the left-hander left her third chance on the table at 8-7 after erasing Stearns’ 6-3 lead.

Stearns also survived tight early tests during the week, including saving match point in the first round against Linda Fruhvirtova as she accumulated wins despite not having advanced past a tour-level quarterfinal before this week. The final was the second straight all-American title match in Austin, following Jessica Pegula’s win over McCartney Kessler for the 2025 crown. Both home contenders will see meaningful ranking gains ahead of the Sunshine Double.

Evan King’s path back to the tour was anything but linear. The former Michigan standout left professional tennis in 2014 and returned to Ann Arbor to coach, only to feel “the itch to compete again.” His four seasons at Michigan left him ranked second in all-time singles and combined wins and a two-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year, but early pro setbacks convinced him he needed to change his approach.

“I just wasn’t handling losing every week right,” King told TENNIS.com when reflecting on the early part of his career. After serving as a Volunteer Assistant Coach between 2014-2016 he recommitted to training and adopted a stricter work ethic. King recalls a clear turning point after a 6-1 loss to Dennis Novolo that forced him to confront his routine. “I decided to go after it again and do it in the correct way,” King said. “If I lost a match, not just taking the next day off. ‘No, get your ass back on the practice court and keep building and keep growing.”

The reset paid dividends. Back on a full schedule in 2016, King reached four Futures finals and won two consecutive events. He returned to tour-level draws in 2017 at Los Cabos and the US Open. While his singles peak came at 185, his results were stronger in doubles: from 2016-2020 he won 16 doubles titles, including the 2016 Monterey Challenger with Dennis Kudla, a 2017 victory with Christopher Eubanks and the 2019 Monterrey Challenger with Nathan Pasha.

King shifted to a primarily doubles focus in 2021, capturing Challenger titles in Zagreb and Biella and reaching the US Open third round. Between 2021 and 2023 he collected thirteen Challenger titles and cracked the Top 100. At 33, his 2025 season paired him with Christian Harrison; after agreeing to five events they won the ATP Dallas 500 in their third tournament, reached the Delray Beach 250 final, won the Acapulco 500 and made deep runs at Indian Wells and Roland Garros. “So then it’s like, boom, we are now a partnership. Obviously, we’re partners before, but now we’re locked in,” King said.

King also highlights the value of the Black tennis community: “It’s not too many of us out there. So you automatically have a little bit of bond on shared experiences…kind of get to know all the black dudes that are your same age range and hang out with them, compete with them, cheer for them.” He now partners with Jonathan Peers and remains convinced his best tennis is still ahead.