Trio of American Women Forge Onward in Paris
American Madison Keys was a straight set winner Thursday at the French Open, dismissing Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-0, 6-3 to advance to round three in Paris. Bencic, a past winner of the French Open Junior title, was a round one upset winner over Daniela Hantuchova earlier in the week.
Keys, seeded 16th in the women’s singles draw, opened play in Roland Garros against fellow American Varvara Lepchenko, 7-6, 6-3. Keys had a strong showing earlier in the year at the Australian Open, defeating upsetting the fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova in round three and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals before falling to Serena Williams in the semifinals Down Under.
"Obviously it's not easy first round playing Varvara, and Belinda is also a great player. So I knew it was going to be tough," Keys said. "I knew I was going to have to be playing well and kind of in my best form in order to get past them. Just really happy with kind of how I managed to fight through the first one. I thought I played really well today."
Keys will face Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Tereza Smitkova on Thursday.
After taking care of fellow American Venus Williams earlier in the week, Sloane Stephens came into her match Thursday against Heather Watson of Great Britain winless in four career meetings. Stephens continues her run in Roland Garros in convincing fashion, ousting the Brit 6-2, 6-4 to move onward in just over 70 minutes. Stephens is through to the third round for a meeting with Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria who defeated Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic with 6-3, 7-6(2). Stephens has met Pironkova twice over their careers, with Stephens holding a 2-0 advantage. Their last meeting was in 2013 on the familiar clay courts of Brussels.
World number 85 Irina Falconi of the U.S. defeated French wild card Manon Arcangioli, 6-2, 6-0 to advance on Thursday as well.
