Day 7 at the 2025 French Open began with No. 3 women's seed Jessica Pegula encountering some early difficulty against Marketa Vondrousova, losing the first set. But she recovered to win the next two sets and advanced to the tournament's fourth round.
After losing the first set 6-3, Pegula surged out to a 5-1 lead in the second set. But she couldn't get break point over Vondrousova, who battled her way back. Ultimately, however, Pegula tired Vondrousova out by getting her to move side-to-side constantly to catch up to her returns. The 2023 Wimbledon champion had little left for the third set, resulting in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory for Pegula.
Following the match, Pegula admitted that she had trouble getting to Vondrousova's drop shots initially.
"For the first hour I was just running up and back, sprints, it was like a fitness workout with her drop shots," Pegula said, <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/live-blogs/french-open-2025-live-updates-day-seven-scores-results/aNU1XcZh4p8r/ZPuO6nh1rgdI/">via The Athletic</a>. "She's so tricky. She does well here every year."
"I know she hasn't been playing that much because she's been injured," she added, "But to be honest, I think that was a really good win against someone who is really a clay courter. To figure it out makes me really proud."
Pegula will face a French opponent, either Elsa Jacquemot or Lois Boisson, in the next round and figures to have the crowd at Roland-Garros rooting against her as a result.
Jannik Sinner faces no trouble versus Jiri Lehecka
On the men's side, top seed Jannik Sinner cruised to the fourth round, easily defeating Jiri Lehecka in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. Losing only three games, Sinner finished the match in one hour and 35 minutes.
He was relentless from the start, winning 11 straight games to begin the match while getting 31 winners and only committing nine unforced errors. In his post-match interview, Sinner said that starting well was "very important for confidence." Clearly, that confidence didn't waver at all against Lehecka, ranked No. 34 in the world, on Saturday.
Up next for Sinner is Andrey Rublev, who automatically advanced with Arthur Fils having to withdraw due to a stress fracture in his lower back.
