Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula advance at French Open

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.

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 Akexandrova 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.

–Field Level Media