US Open: Vondrousova into third Grand Slam quarter-final

No 9 seed Marketa Vondrousova defeated American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the last eight of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Monday.

The victory sees Vondrousova reach her third career Grand Slam quarter-final, continuing her strong form this summer after winning Wimbledon last month.

Up next, the Czech will play yet another American, with No 17 seed Madison Keys having prevailed against Jessica Pegula earlier in the day.

Vondrousova locks down in the face of Stearns test

21-year-old Peyton Stearns came out firing in front of a home crowd against Marketa Vondrousova, using her power game to hit through the Wimbledon champion across the opening games.

As the two went toe-to-toe, a shoulder issue emerged for Vondrousova, who was forced to take pain killers to mitigate the injury. Stearns managed to come out on top in the first set tiebreak, however, the Czech’s shoulder would have a bigger than expected impact on the match.

Vondrousova locked down, and simply focused on making balls and running Stearns side to side. Her patience and consistency drew a myriad of errors from the young American, while the No 9 seed made very few herself.

The result was a complete swing in momentum, with Stearns growing increasingly frustrated and spraying more and more shots wide as Vondrousova claimed the second set 6-3, before going on to execute a similar approach in the third set, even as her shoulder loosened up.

“She was playing great from the beginning, so I just tried to stay in the game,” revealed Vondrousova after the victory, with the recent Grand Slam champion also confessing that her US Open form has come as a surprise to her. “Yeah I am very happy, I actually didn’t expect it, after Wimbledon it was a lot of pressure. I’m feeling good, just trying to enjoy the game.”

Ahead of her victory, Marketa Vondrousova won against qualifier Na-Lae Han (6-3, 6-0), Italian Martina Trevisan (6-2, 6-2) and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 22 seed (6-2, 6-1). Stearns, ranked No 59, won against Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (6-3, 6-4), Dane Clara Tauson (6-3, 6-0) and Katie Boulter (6-4, 6-3) in the previous rounds of the Flushing Meadow tournament.

New York (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Daria Kasatkina vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Ons Jabeur vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Madison Keys beat Jessica Pegula (3): 6-1, 6-3
• Jelena Ostapenko (20) beat Iga Swiatek (1): 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
• Coco Gauff (6) beat Caroline Wozniacki (WC): 6-3, 3-6, 6-1
• Sorana Cirstea (30) beat Belinda Bencic (15): 6-3, 6-3
• Karolina Muchova (10) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-3, 5-7, 6-1

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