By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS (Reuters) -World number one Jannik Sinner pummelled Jiri Lehecka at the French Open to reach the fourth round while third seed Jessica Pegula took a longer route with a battling victory over 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova on Saturday.
As grey skies enveloped Roland Garros after the temperature soared a day earlier, an unrelenting Sinner turned up the heat on Lehecka at Court Suzanne Lenglen to win the opening 11 games of their clash without any response.
Lehecka drew loud cheers when he finally got on the board but Sinner continued his Roland Garros masterclass and eased to a 6-0 6-1 6-2 victory and booked a clash with Andrey Rublev, who advanced after injured Frenchman Arthur Fils pulled out.
Vondrousova is also no stranger to injuries, her latest being a shoulder problem after her Wimbledon title defence ended in the first round last year, and the Czech looked to be finding her best form again on Parisian clay.
She won the opening set of her match on Court Philippe Chatrier but American Pegula proved too good when it mattered to close out a 3-6 6-4 6-2 win and will face the winner of the all-French clash between Elsa Jacquemot and Lois Boisson.
‘LUCKY CHARM’
Russian 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva outclassed Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-1 at Court Suzanne Lenglen and the sixth seed attributed the comfortable win to a colourful drawing a young supporter left for her on her bench.
“Wherever that little girl is, I want to thank her, because it’s my lucky charm,” added sixth seed Andreeva, who became the youngest woman to complete 10 Roland Garros singles match wins since Swiss two-times runner-up Martina Hingis.
Spanish 10th seed Paula Badosa would have wished for a bit of luck to force a third set against a dominant Daria Kasatkina but instead crashed 6-1 7-5 to the Russian-born 17th seed who now represents Australia.
“I was ready for a difficult match,” said Kasatkina, who can expect another big test against Andreeva next.
“I knew if she got a chance, she would take it straight away. That’s what happened in the second set. This is where things got tight. But I’m really proud of myself and how I handled the situation.”
Three-time champion Novak Djokovic takes on qualifier Filip Misolic in the evening session seeking his 99th match victory at Roland Garros and equal his tally at the Australian Open, where he has 10 titles.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in ParisEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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