Second-seeded Coco Gauff overcame struggles with her serve to post a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Czech Republic qualifier Tereza Valentova on Thursday in the second round of the French Open in Paris.
Gauff overcame six double faults to dispatch the 18-year-old Valentova in 75 minutes.
Gauff will square off against another Czech opponent when she faces Marie Bouzkova in the third round. Bouzkova eased past Great Britain’s Sonay Kartal 6-1, 6-4.
Speaking after the match, Gauff expressed discontent with the French Open schedule favoring men’s matches in the coveted night spots.
“I feel like we produce some high-quality tennis, and we have some great stars on the women’s side who fans I’m sure would love to see,” Gauff said. “From my experience, playing at the U.S. Open, night match at 7 p.m., with Novak (Djokovic) following me — and he’s the greatest player of all time — people were almost just as excited to see me play as (they were) him.”
Third-seeded Jessica Pegula won six of her last seven games en route to posting a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Ann Li.
“It was a really tough match today,” Pegula said. “Ann has been playing some really good tennis this year and had a lot of close matches with good players. It was tricky with the wind. She was slicing a lot, kind of making me earn a lot of points.
“I felt like it was a pretty physical match, a lot of long points and long games. But happy I was able to kind of hold on to that second set there definitely.”
Pegula advances to face Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 Wimbledon champion, who recorded a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory over No. 25 Magdalena Frech of Poland.
Also on Thursday, sixth-seeded Mirra Andreeva of Russia, seventh-seeded Madison Keys and 20th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia breezed to straight-set victories.
Andreeva notched a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ashlyn Krueger, Keys cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Great Britain’s Katie Boulter and Alexandrova coasted to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Tenth-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain rallied to a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Veronika Kudermetova of Russia won her first eight games en route to upsetting Czech 15th seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-0, 6-3. Australia’s Daria Kasatkina, the No. 17 seed, prevailed 6-4, 6-2 over France’s Leolia Jeanjean.
Also advancing to the third round were No. 31 seed Sofia Kenin, Kazakh No. 32 seed Yulia Putintseva, Hailey Baptiste, Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and French natives Lois Boisson and Elsa Jacquemot.
–Field Level Media
