The French Open
French Open 2025 Women’s Day 7
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula needed fighting wins to put a pair of US seeds into the French Open fourth round, with both overcoming dangerous Czech opponents on Saturday.
Gauff, seeded second and a former finalist here, won the first set but had to come through after eight breaks of serve in the second set to defeat Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 7-6 (3).
Pegula needed a fightback to reach the fourth round, defeating former Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The Gauff match featured long rallies, with the seed winning her 23rd match here.
“She was putting a lot of balls back,” the winner said. “But I had to generate most of the pace. I’m happy with how I stayed with it – not easy.
“In the first set I was playing well, in the second it was a few points here and there and I just missed some.
The third-seeded Pegula finally got the measure of her Vondrousova, a quarter-finalist here a year ago.
Pegula improved her Roland Garros record to 11-5 as she moved into a match against French wildl card Lois Boisson, who beat compatriot Elsa Jacquemot 6-3, 0-6, 7-5.
“They’re going to have some crazy support for them, but I’m pretty good at zoning out,” Pegula said. “I’ve played in some pretty rowdy crowds.
“I think it will be fun, it will be cool to be a part of that. That will be a fun
experience. I don’t think I have ever played a French player here, so that will be interesting.”
Pegula was pleased with her showing against Vondrousova.
“I know playing Marketa is always going to be a battle, especially since we had not played on clay before.
“I was thinking it was going to be really tricky, and it definitely was. It’s also super humid today.
“I felt like it was just a really tough match mentally and physically
Australian Open champion Madison Keys escaped with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win against fellow former Melbourne titleholder Sofia Kenin.
“It was a great experience, I had so much crowd support to get through that match,” Keys said. “In the first set I was letting her dictate too much, I tried to move her around a bit more on her serve after that.”
Newest Aussie Daria Kasatkina ended the hopes of 10th seed Paula Badosa with a 6-1, 7-5 victory as the Spanird went out with 41 unforced errors.
Kasatkina, who took up citizenship a few weeks ago, will line up next against 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva.
The teenager beat Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-1 and credited a momento left on her chair by the little girl who accompanied her in the match walk-on with at least some of the success.
Andreeva called the intricately painted round paper badge her “good luck charm” while thanking the anonymous child in her post-match interview.
“I felt a little nervous before the match, but overall, I felt like I could do whatever I want to on the court,” the No. 6 seed said.
“I felt free, even though the match was tight I can create what I want. It felt
nice, honestly..
“I’m happy that with every match I play, I feel better and better. I think that this is a good thing.”
Kasatkina won their only previous meeting in China last season, taking three sets to advance.
“I think that we practise together every tournament. It’s going to be an entertaining match, for sure, because we both know each other very well.
“I think it’s going to be fun and also maybe pretty tight.”
Kasatkina has been turning her recent tennis around after arriving in Paris with three consecutive defeats.
“The last couple of weeks were a bit rough for me,” she said. “I couldn’t find myself on court. I felt a little bit flat, like with emotions and stuff.
“I would feel little signs of burnout or something like that. I’m really happy that I got back on track here in Roland Garros, one of my favorite tournaments.
“I’m playing much better, feeling much better on court. That’s the most important.”
Ekaterina Alexndrova defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, XXX
Alexander Zverev on Thursday made a long-sought after return to the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, booking his first final four at the event since 2019, defeating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4.
The 2027 year-end No. 1 last got this far as the Covid pandemic began to surface in China in 2019. The event was not played 2020-2022, with the German making modest progress here over the past three editions since resumption.
After winning his 62nd match of the season, the 29-year-old was pleased with his performance.
“I think it was a huge step up. From just being on the court I felt both of us were playing really well.
“I was, a lot of the time, outhitting Alex, which is difficult to do from the baseline because he is so fast and he loves this kind of court speed here.
“I felt good and I’m happy with the step up from the past couple of matches.”
Zverev advanced in 78 minutes, sending over 10 aces as he defeated the Australian for the ninth time in their 13 matches.
Added the reigning Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows Grand Slam champion: “I’ve been handling pressure quite okay this year. In a way you play a bit more relaxed.
“Once Jannik (SInner) unfortunately announced he won’t play for the rest of the year, I’m 4,000 points ahead of everyone else, so I trust myself enough that I’m going to win [enough matches].
Zverev will play for the final to wrap up the Asian swing as he takes on Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who advanced when Arthur Gea quit their quarter-final with injury.
Alexander Zverev will claim world year-end No. 1 honours for the first time on the back of two Grand Slam titles and a final this season.,
The ATP confirmed the changing of the guard as current No. 1 Jannik Sinner ended his season early last week due to a knee injury which has kept him off court since winning Wimbledon three months ago.
Zverev won Roland Garros and US Open trophies and lost to Sinner in the All England Club final.
His reign at the top will begin after the ATP Final in Turin with the ranking period starting on November 23.
Zverev will be 29 years, 217 days old on the date, three days older than Andre Agassi in 1999 (29 years, 214 days).
Main photo:- Alexander Zverev by ISF Ltd
Zheng Qinwen continued an injury comeback season on Sunday, defeating Roland Garros winner Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-4 to win the China Open.
Victory at the 1000-level event was the first trophy for the 54th-raked Chinese player who once reached fourth in the world before elbow surgery.
Zheng saved three set points in the opening set and claimed victory by winning the last 11 points of the set, breaking late in the second to conclude her success over her teenaged opponent.
The winner now owns six career trophies after winning her first 1000; she last claimed a title in Tokyo two years ago.
In an odd twist, the new winner was cajoled into singing a few bars of karaoke during the trophy ceremony.
She will now move back into the ranking top 25 while Andreeva advances to third in the world behind Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka after defeating her third top 10 opponent this season.
“The feeling was incredible, two weeks here in Beijing, in front of my home crowd is one of my dreams, especially playing against Mirra, such a great player,” the winner said.
“I’ve been through a very, very tough year.”
Andreeva broke new ground in her own career by reaching the final, becoming the third-youngest this century to reach the top 3 behind Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters.
“She’s a great server. I also think today I missed a lot of returns trying to go for it, trying to be more aggressive,” Andreeva said,
“I wanted to go for it but couldn’t really find I guess the margin, couldn’t really find the rhythm, as well. I will probably need to look at this match and just see why, try to improve and learn from that.
“Overall of course it was a good tournament,” she added. “A lot of positives to take from these two weeks. Of course, I felt like today just wasn’t meant to be.
“I think I will be able to look to this match maybe from a different perspective and see maybe some good things.”
Main photo:- Zheng Quinwen by ISF Ltd
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