French Open: Jessica Pegula advances into R3 as Camila Giorgi forced to retire with injury
May 31, 2023
Paris [France], May 31 : The No.3 seed Jessica Pegula advanced into the third round of the ongoing French Open 2023 after Camila Giorgi retired from their match after one set played on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday.
Pegula will next face the winner of the second-round match between No.28 seed Elise Mertens and loser Camila Osorio.
Pegula was up 6-2 when the Italian walked off the court after only 37 minutes. She won the opening four games of the match and hit 12 winners in the next eight games.
The American has reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the ninth time in the last ten majors, and the shortened victory is Pegula's eighth in ten career encounters with Giorgi, and her fifth in a row.
Elsewhere, the World No.69-ranked Peyton Stearns scored the first Top 20 win of her career, upsetting No.17 seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 in 1 hour and 43 minutes.
Stearns impressed Ostapenko with her readiness to fight toe-to-toe with the 2017 champion in terms of first-strike intensity. The Latvian had a better ratio of winners to unforced errors (29 to 28), but Stearns outdid him on both counts, with 30 winners to 21 unforced errors.
Ostapenko showed tenacity in battling back from a sequence of multiple-deuce games to take the second set, but Stearns' spectacular return winners turned the momentum back to the American in the decider.
