Takeaways: Pegula, Gauff lead American charge at Roland Garros
Saturday at Roland Garros was moving day for Hologic WTA Tour players, with eight third-round matches from the bottom half of the draw. To the winners, the spoils: A berth in the French Open’s second week.
Five Americans -- No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 7 Madison Keys, No. 31 Sofia Kenin and unseeded Hailey Baptiste -- headlined a busy day of play.
Four of those five Americans were victorious. Keys saved three match points to beat Kenin, setting up a fourth-round meeting with Baptiste.
Gauff and Pegula also advanced to Monday’s Round of 16. Here’s an accounting of those two victories by the top two Americans in the PIF WTA Rankings:
Jessica Pegula def. Marketa Vondrousova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
Pegula, after dropping the first set, got things going on Court Philippe Chatrier with a comeback victory over the clever and confounding Marketa Vondrousova to make the fourth round.
Turning point: The changeover after the first set. Pegula’s mounting frustration was quite visible, and she came out on fire in the second. After failing to produce even a single break point in the opening set, Pegula broke Vondrousova three straight times. Ultimately, converting her sixth set point, Pegula sent the match to a deciding third set, where her superior conditioning prevailed.
Notable stat: Vondrousova held in all four of her service games in the first set, but was only 3-for-9 the rest of the way. A double fault gave Pegula an insurmountable 5-2 lead.
Takeaway: A strong showing from Pegula. As for Vondrousova, she remains a case study in survival in the difficult business of professional tennis. She reached the final here at the French Open in 2019. After two wrist surgeries, Vondrousova came back to win the singles title at Wimbledon, her first at a Grand Slam. In 2024, it was shoulder surgery after Wimbledon and she missed the second half of the season. Vondrousova came back this year, but after only seven matches, her shoulder wasn’t quite ready. After another three-month layoff, she arrived in Paris and played well, winning three matches.
Quotable: “Obviously had some chances in the first, but sometimes you can’t quite get the break," Pegula said afterward. "You’re so close, so close … I think when I finally broke her I kind of freed up a little bit. I thought I was playing her the right way the first set, I just needed to be a tad more aggressive. And then there were times in the third where maybe I was a little too aggressive, coming in on awkward shots. Playing her, that’s why’s it’s so hard -- it’s like a really fine line, especially on clay.”
What’s next: Pegula will play Lois Boisson, a 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 winner over fellow French wild card Elsa Jacquemot in a fourth-round match on Monday.
Coco Gauff def. Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 7-6(3)
Turning point: Bouzkova’s very first service game. Gauff had lost her two previous matches against her (Cincinnati 2022 and Rome 2023), and she knew she had to establish herself early. Gauff won the first three points, and converted her second break point for a 2-0 lead. She broke Bouzkova again in the sixth game and served it out -- at love.
Notable stats: Two reasons Gauff will like her chances heading into the second week: 1) her 23 match wins at the French Open are the most she has in any tournament, and 2) Gauff has 14 clay-court tour-level wins in 2025, second only to Elina Svitolina's 15.
Takeaways: Gauff, 21, is the youngest American player to reach the fourth round of seven consecutive Grand Slams since Venus Williams did it nine straight times from 1997-99.
Quotable: “I can play those [second set] games better," Gauff said in her post-match press. "I think I served a bit more aggressive in the first set, so I was holding easier and maybe got a little bit too passive on the serve in the second, and it allowed her to get back into the match in those ways. I think just keeping the aggressive mindset is something that I can do better for the next match.”
What’s next: Gauff will play No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Veronika Kudermetova in a fourth-round match on Monday.