US Open 2025 Women’s Day 4

Last year’s finalist Jessica Pegula put her 2024 loss to Aryna Sabalenka further into the rearview mirror on Wednesday as the fourth seed dispatched Anna Blinkova, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the US Open third round.

The American now stands a near-flawless 4-1 in the series. Pegula took a 4-1 lead in the opening set to set the tone and recovered from an early break down in the second set before racing to victory.

Pegula had 30 winners to seven for her opponent.

“I’m glad I came out quickly today,” she said as she moved into a match with Victoria Azarenka.

Double Grand Slam champion Azarenka reached the Open third round for the 15th time with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The three-time New York runner-up now ranked 132, advanced in 87 minutes over this season’s Australian Open and Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

“She started really strong, I had to find my feet and get my intensity up and start making more first balls and dictating more,” Azarenka said. “But after a few games, I started to find my form a little bit.”

Tennis rich-list leader Emma Navarro, whose billionaire father owns two American tournaments, booked the third round 6-2, 6-1 over US compatriot Cathy McNally.

Navarro had little to recommend her coming into the Open, having lost  five of her last six singles matches; she converted on seven of eight break point chances against her compatriot.

2021 titleholder Emma Raducanu produced an identical one-way scoreline as the Briton ended the dream run of Indonesian minnow Janice Tjen, ranked 149.

Raducanu fired 16 winners including eight aces as she set a personal speed record for a match, finishing the rout in exactly one hour after a 62-minute win in the first round here.

The only niggle for WTA No. 34 Raducanu might have been a slight back problem which she shook off in the second set against the Asian who attended university in the US.

“I’m very pleased with how I kept dictating the points and didn’t let her too often get her front foot on the court,” Raducanu said. “. She’s obviously been playing very well, done a lot of winning.

“Of course I was on full alert playing today; I’m just very pleased with that performance.”

She said her injury scare was really nothing: “I just had a little bit of stiffness in the second set. I’ve been doing a lot of training, and I’m just happy it didn’t affect me too much.

“I was still able to compete and to perform well and keep putting out good serves, good returns.I think it didn’t really come into the match too much, which I’m happy with.”

The other long-odds joker in the women’s draw, Alexandre Eala of the Philippines, was eliminated 6-3, 6-4 by Spain’s Cristina Busca.

Main photo:-Jessica Pegula winning today – by Mark Greenwood Grandslamtennis