Roland-Garros: Mertens upsets third seed Pegula to reach fourth round

Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 28 seed, upset American Jessica Pegula, the No 3 seed, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the fourth round of Roland-Garros in Paris on Friday.

This was Mertens’ third win in as many matches over Pegula and she becomes the first female player from Belgium to appear in the fourth round in back-to-back editions of the French Open since Justine Henin in 2006-07.

Finding all the angles 📐@elise_mertens x @JPegula #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/H1fzhjrWuS

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 2, 2023

The Belgian improves to 3-8 against top-10 opponents at Grand Slam events, her previous one coming against Sofia Kenin at the 2020 US Open.

Mertens, ranked No 28 in the world, will face the winner of the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No 24 seed Anastasia Potapova next.

The Belgian beat Slovak lucky loser Viktoria Hruncakova (6-1, 6-4) and Colombian lucky loser Camila Osorio (6-3, 7-6 (3)) ahead of her victory.

Pegula’s loss means two of the top 5 women’s seeds are now out after fifth seed Caroline Garcia bowed out in the second round. The American will also drop to No 5 in the rankings at the end of the French Open.

This also means that the Big 3 of women’s tennis in 2023 – Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, hold the top 3 positions in the live WTA rankings as of today and are well placed to remain in the top 3 rankings at the end of Roland-Garros.

This result also throws her quarter wide open with eighth seed Maria Sakkari and 12th seed Belinda Bencic from that section also going out earlier in the week.

In the previous rounds of the French Open, Pegula, ranked No 3, defeated Danielle Collins (6-4, 6-2) and Italian Camila Giorgi (6-2 ret.). The American had reached the quarter-finals in four of the last five Grand Slam events.

Roland-Garros (Grand Slam), other third-round matches (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49.600.000)

• Daria Kasatkina (9) beat Peyton Stearns: 6-0, 6-1
• Olga Danilovic vs. Ons Jabeur
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Bernarda Pera
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Elena Rybakina vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Coco Gauff
• Anna Karolina Schmiedlova vs. Kayla Day
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Iga Swiatek vs. Xinyu Wang
• Karolina Muchova vs. Irina-Camelia Begu
• Sloane Stephens vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Clara Tauson vs. Elina Avanesyan
• Kamilla Rakhimova vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Anna Blinkova vs. Elina Svitolina
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Anastasia Potapova

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