"Countless trips to the bathroom, hard to get out of bed" - NCAA champion Peyton Stearns to take time off tennis after finding parasite in her body

Peyton Stearns recently announced that she will be taking a break from tennis after discovering that she is hosting a parasite in her body.

Stearns, the reigning champion of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Singles National Championship, recently participated in the grasscourt tournament in Berlin. She defeated Maria Timofeeva in the first qualifier. Unfortunately, her run was cut short when she was defeated by Jaimee Fourlis 6-4 2-6 6-4 in the next round.

After her defeat in Berlin, Peyton Stearns took to social media to provide an update on her health. In her statement, she revealed that she would be taking a break from the sport due to an unknown illness that has been plaguing her on and off since the 2023 French Open.

The symptoms have been severe, including countless trips to the bathroom and an inability to keep food down, leaving her fatigued and exhausted.

"Since the French Open I've been battling an unknown illness on and off randomly," Stearns wrote. "I've had severe symptoms and countless trips to the bathroom per day, as my body was rejecting something inside of me. I wasn't able to keep food down most days and because of that my body was fatigued and tired making it extremely hard to get out of bed some mornings."

After consulting with a doctor, Peyton Stearns discovered that she had been harboring a parasite all along. She stated that she will take the necessary time to rest and recover before returning to the court at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

"I thought it was just the flu or something similar and was told to let it run its course, but after 3 weeks I decided to seek medical help from a doctor. After running some blood and other tests we found out I've been hosting a parasite in my body! Going to take some time to recover and get ready for Wimbledon and most importantly get this parasite out of my body for good #nomoretoiletruns," she added.

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Peyton Stearns steadily rises up the WTA rankings

Peyton Stearns at the 2023 French Open.

Since her professional debut in June 2022, Peyton Stearns has been steadily climbing the WTA live rankings. She secured her first win on the WTA tour at the 2023 ATX Open by defeating Katie Boulter in the first round.

The American made it to the quarterfinals in Austin, where she squared off against Katie Volynets. This quarterfinal run catapulted her into the top 100 of the rankings.

Peyton Stearns reached her first WTA Tour final at the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota. On her way to the final, she defeated Tamara Zidensek and Kamilla Rakhimova. Despite her impressive performances, Stearns ultimately fell short in the final, losing a hard-fought match against Tatjana Maria 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

The 21-year-old caused a huge upset at the 2023 French Open when she defeated doubles No.1 Katerina Siniakova in the first round. She followed up with another impressive victory over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, winning 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

Although Peyton Stearns' promising run came to an end in the third round, where she lost to ninth seed Daria Kasatkina, her debut at Roland Garros resulted in a 12-spot jump in the rankings.