The stars largely managed to avoid banana skins on a busy Sunday at the Madrid Open as the third round came to a close. Top seed Iga Swiatek charged into the fourth round with a comfortable straight-sets win over Bernarda Pera, while Jessca Pegula had to navigate a tie-break to see off Marie Bouzkova. Veronika Kudermetova went to three sets in her win over Anastasia Potapova.
The American needed six set points to close out the opening frame. The decisive second set was even more tightly contested. Bouzkova fought off two match points to force a tie-break, and only there did Pegula really manage to get on top. The American raced into a 5-0 lead, and the writing was belatedly on the wall.
Top seed Iga Swiatek swept into the fourth round, beating No. 28 seed Bernarda Pera 6-3 6-2.
The world No. 1 improved her career record on clay to an all-time leading 88.2%, ahead of the iconic Serena Williams’ career average of 88%.
Swiatek defended her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title in Stuttgart last weekend, beating world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, and is in a serious vein of form as Roland-Garros approaches.
She will face the winner of Qinwen Zheng v Ekaterina Alexandrova.
No. 8 seed Daria Kasatkina beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-4 6-2 to move to the round of 16. Kasatkina will face Veronika Kudermetova in her next match. Previously, the Russian won against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the tournament.
The most intriguing moment came in the aftermath of Kasatkina’s victory, when the Russian’s offer of a handshake was declined by the Ukrainian Tsurenko. Kasatkina gave a wave instead when Tsurenko walked past.
