PARIS (Reuters) -Former finalist Marketa Vondrousova overcame France's Chloe Paquet to win 6-1 6-3 and reach the last 16 of the French Open on Friday.
Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon last year, was a beaten finalist at Roland Garros in 2019 and the Czech player kept alive her dream of returning to the final with her straight-sets win over the French player.
"I think she was fighting until the end. You know, the crowd was behind her, so it was tough. But overall it was a great match," Vondrousova said.
The fifth seed began strongly, breaking to love in the opening game and although Paquet responded immediately with a break of her own, Vondrousova went on to win the next five games to take the first set with ease.
Paquet, 29, had never reached the third round before and her struggles continued in the second set when Vondrousova took a 3-0 lead but the French player rallied and broke to pull it back to 4-3 down.
Vondrousova responded and broke again to move within one game of victory and although Paquet forced a break point, Vondrousova held serve and moved into the fourth round.
The Czech 24-year-old will now play Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic, who has already knocked out 11th seed Danielle Collins.
Danilovic defeated Donna Vekic when their third-round match finally got underway after rain delays on Court Simonne Mathieu, directly before Vondrousova took to the same court.
"Yeah, I saw the whole match because I was playing after them, so I saw everything," Vondrousova said.
"It was very tough, and she's a great player. I know her since we were juniors, so yeah, it's going to be very tough on clay.
"She's doing an amazing job, it's also fourth round and second week, so I think anything can happen now."
Vondrousova and Danilovic have met only once before, with the Czech player coming out on top when they faced each other at the United Cup in January.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Toby Davis and Clare Fallon)
