Top-10 seeds Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina swept into the fourth round, but Jasmine Paolini was not as lucky on Friday at the U.S. Open.
Ex-Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova knocked off Italian seventh seed Paolini 7-6 (4), 6-1 in their third-round match.
The unseeded Czech hit six aces and remained unbroken throughout the clash. The pair were locked into a competitive back-and-forth in the key sixth game of the second set when Paolini sent a backhand stab sailing long to help Vondrousova convert her sixth break point.
“It was a very important game,” Vondrousova said after the match. “Big difference between 4-2 and 5-1. It was a crazy game — and the key to the match.”
The 29-year-old Paolini had two straight-set wins leading into Friday’s matchup, including breezing past teenager Iva Jovic in her second-round match. Coming into the U.S. Open, she had been playing some of her best tennis, including a trip to the Cincinnati Open final, where she fell to Polish star Iga Swiatek, and titles in both singles and doubles at the Italian Open earlier this year.
It is the first time Vondrousova has reached the fourth round of a major since last year’s French Open, where she lost to Swiatek in the quarterfinal.
She will next face the ninth-seeded Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who lost just three games and needed only 62 minutes to defeat Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu 6-1, 6-2.
A former Wimbledon champ like Vondrousova, Rybakina’s weakest Grand Slam has historically been the U.S. Open. This marks her first time reaching the fourth round in Flushing Meadows.
“For some reason the U.S. Open through the years wasn’t really successful for me,” Rybakina said in her on-court interview. “So hopefully this year it will change.”
No. 4 seed Pegula, on the other hand, made the 2024 U.S. Open her closest call at a major before falling to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the final.
The New York state native is trying to chart a course back to the final as she defeated former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-1, 7-5 Friday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Pegula fell down a break in the second set and trailed Azarenka 4-2 and 5-4 before completing a comeback.
“Last year this place was really special,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “I had some amazing moments on this court. My results weren’t that amazing the last couple of months, so being able to turn it around really quickly was awesome.”
Spaniard Cristina Bucsa upset No. 19 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Four matches remained Friday evening, including the top-seeded Sabalenka taking on Canadian 31st seed Leylah Fernandez. Americans Ann Li, Emma Navarro (the 10th seed) and Taylor Townsend will all be in action as well.
–Field Level Media
