Coco Gauff, the youngest remaining woman in the French Open draw, reached the fourth round at Roland Garros by beating Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-4 on Friday.
Gauff, 18, was a toddler when Estonian Kanepi — who at 36 was the oldest remaining woman — played the first of her two French Open quarterfinals in 2008. On Friday, Gauff had six aces and five double faults, while Kanepi made 29 unforced errors.
« I knew it was going to be a tough game. [She] beat [former champion Garbine] Muguruza in the first round. … I knew today would be close, » said Gauff, who achieved her best Grand Slam result when she made it to the French Open quarterfinals last year. « I’ve been coming to France since I was 10 and trained at the Mouratoglou academy, so I guess it makes me maybe not a clay-court expert, but not bad at it. »
Gauff has not dropped a set in her first three matches. She will next face No. 31 Elise Mertens, who defeated Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 6-3.
Kanepi broke in the first game, but Gauff struck back emphatically, winning the next five games with a flurry of winners on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Kanepi took a 3-2 lead in the second set, but her hopes of a comeback were short-lived, as she dropped serve again when she buried an easy backhand into the net after a poorly executed drop shot from Gauff.
Serving at 4-3, Gauff held and closed out the match on serve when Kanepi made her 29th unforced error.
In other results, Angelique Kerber’s quest of completing a career Grand Slam came to an end after the 21st seed lost 6-4, 7-6 (5) to Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Sasnovich will head to the fourth round at the clay-court major for the first time.
Also advancing Friday were US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez and Amanda Anisimova, who will meet in the fourth round.
Fernandez beat Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 at Court Philippe Chatrier. Anisimova advanced when Karolina Muchova stopped playing after hurting her right ankle.
The 17th-seeded Fernandez broke Bencic in the 11th game of the deciding set and served out the match. She had saved two set points in the opener.
The 27th-seeded Anisimova, an American who reached the Roland Garros semifinals at age 17 in 2019 and eliminated four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the first round this year, was leading 6-7 (7), 6-2, 3 -0 when Muchova walked to the net to concede the match.
Muchova twisted her right foot while serving at 2-all in the second set. She went to the sideline during that game to get checked on by a doctor and a trainer, who tapped up the ankle.
When play resumed after the medical timeout, Muchova dropped seven games in a row before retiring from the match.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
