Sinner powers into French Open last 16, Pegula and Andreeva advance
World number one Jannik Sinner powered into the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday, punishing outclassed Czech Jiri Lehecka as American Jessica Pegula and Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva both booked their spots in the second week.
Sinner won through 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, with world number 34 Lehecka unable to stop the Italian steamroller on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, slumping to his third defeat in as many meetings after a one-hour 34-minute battering.
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"Today I was playing really, really well, especially during (the first) two-and-a-half sets... so very happy," said top seed Sinner.
"I don't think there's much I could improve."
Three-time Grand Slam winner Sinner next meets Russia's Andrey Rublev, the beneficiary of a walkover to the fourth round after France's Arthur Fils withdrew injured on Friday.
Sinner has been finding his feet since his comeback from a three-month doping ban at the Italian Open earlier in May, reaching the final before losing to reigning Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz.
And the 23-year-old has continued his fine form on the red clay of Roland Garros where he has not dropped a set, extending his winning streak at Grand Slam events to 17 matches after titles at the 2024 US Open and Australian Open this January.
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German third seed Alexander Zverev, who lost last year's final to Alcaraz, will next face Italian Flavio Cobolli, the world number 26 later in the day.
Novak Djokovic faces a Champions League clash as he steps up his pursuit of a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam against Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic in the primetime night session on Court Philippe Chatrier.
In the women's tournament, American third seed Jessica Pegula battled into the last 16 with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
Pegula, last year's US Open runner-up, will play the winner of the all-French duel between Lois Boisson, ranked 361, and Elsa Jacquemot, 138th, for a place in the quarter-finals.
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The 31-year-old, who missed the 2024 tournament due to injuries, is hoping to better her previous best run in Paris which was a quarter-final appearance three years ago.
- Andreeva feeling 'better and better' -
Earlier, 18-year-old Andreeva eased into the last 16 with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.
Sixth seed Andreeva took 78 minutes to dispatch Putinstseva to set up a showdown with Daria Kasatkina, ranked 17.
Kasatkina, now playing for Australia after switching allegiance from her native Russia, got past Spanish 10th seed Paula Badosa 6-1, 7-5 in their third round match.
Andreeva is competing in just her ninth Grand Slam event, but the teenager has now reached the second week in five of them.
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After a closely-contested first set, Andreeva took control winning nine of the last 10 games of the match.
"I felt a little nervous before the match, but overall, throughout I felt like I could do whatever I want on the court," said Andreeva.
"Like, you know, I felt free. I felt like even though the match is tight and even though sometimes she plays very tough shots, I felt like as soon as I recover and the point starts again, I felt like I can create what I want. It felt nice, honestly.
"I'm happy that with every match I play, I feel better and better. I think that this is a good thing.
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Women's second seed and former finalist Coco Gauff will step up on Court Philippe Chatrier to play Czech world number 47 Marie Bouzkova later Saturday.
Three other American women are in action with Madison Keys and Sofia Kenin clashing for a place in the last 16, and unseeded compatriot Hailey Baptiste takes on Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
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I know it's not a goal, but that really needs to be rewarded because that's the intensity, concentration, and maintaining the focus. You know that that has such an impact on the opponent as well. It takes a lot away from them.' Advertisement 'I don't remember a situation where Inter have actually been able to pass feet-to-feet centrally while PSG have been pressing. PSG have really worked hard at taking away those lines inside, and they've forced predictable circulations of the ball, meaning they've been able to get closer and closer, force mistakes and regains. Their work against the ball has been exceptional.' His first-half critique of Inter is that they were 'close to passive'. He finds using the word as an absolute 'really offensive. It's not nice, but it was in that direction.' PSG completed over 100 passes inside the first 15 minutes — three sequences of 10+ passes — and Inter only recorded two tackles and two interceptions, content to slide and shuffle in their 5-3-2 block. Cathro's analysis was that Inter were 'actively trying to trap the ball on one side. They're sitting, they're allowing a fair bit. When somebody allows you to do something, that's because they're planning to do something to you. 'We've not seen one Inter counter-attacking situation from established PSG attacks. They regained it on the midfield line and slammed it forward to the two strikers once. 'They switched it to the right side and you thought, 'OK, maybe this is the counter that they're looking for'. They've not had a possession that's forced PSG to drop back into shape once. 'If they want to try and trap us on the same side, then I'd (PSG) be looking to repeat (attack again) that side with a different movement or a different mobility — try and profit from their plans.' 'Same side' is a phrase Cathro repeats a lot when talking about attacks, explaining how PSG reworked the situation down the left to create the cutback from Doue to Hakimi for the opening goal. Acerbi steps forward when Fabian Ruiz passes backwards to Vitinha. This makes space for a through ball to Doue, and the domino effect is that Dimarco (having played Doue onside) scrambles across to cover. He was marking Hakimi and ends up neither stopping the full-back nor blocking the cutback, and the Moroccan taps in. Quarter-final goal ✅Semi-final goal ✅Final goal ✅ Achraf Hakimi gives PSG an early lead in the Champions League final, but refuses to celebrate against his former side Inter ⚽ 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 31, 2025 Cathro likes the word 'mobility' to describe full-backs and wingers interchanging, and says it is important, 'especially against a back three. When the outside centre-backs start to feel that they lose their references (for marking) — because there's a certain distance where they feel like, 'I'm controlling this one' and then there's the point where they're not controlling anyone directly — that creates that little gap'. Advertisement What would he have done if he were Simone Inzaghi? He caveats that 'there's definitely a non-tactical element in this,' and that a 'limited number of impactful things can happen'. The 38-year-old speaks from experience, having been Nuno's assistant at Rio Ave in May 2014 when they lost two domestic cup finals to Benfica and were behind at half-time in both. Tactically, his focus would be to 'get another player in the middle and try and force the middle of the pitch. See if that just forces PSG to have more doubts when they're pressing. Because if they have to run too far away from the middle or all midfielders need to be engaged in pressure, they may not feel comfortable, knowing that there's two strikers behind'. He points out it takes 27 minutes for a pass to stick from the back line into a striker — from Sommer looping a drop-kick into Thuram — before Inter work a wide triangle with two midfielders combining to put Denzel Dumfries into a crossing position. PSG cleared it but Thuram and Martinez were two-v-two in the box. Twelve of Inter's 19 crosses came from the right, and Cathro spots a pattern on 28 minutes that kept creating crossing positions down the right. 'That's two maybe, three times, that diagonal in-to-out run down the right has been made. PSG haven't been close enough to it and the cross has been possible. A lot of teams, when they're closer to their box in that situation, don't send the centre back — they send the midfielder. 'If Inter get into that position and are high enough up, that diagonal run for the ball down the line might leave a player free because the centre-back isn't going to want to come.' His less tactical solution owes to 'the Scottish part of my psyche. The Inter team — older, more experienced, more years, they can see the goal (trophy) — I'm surprised that there's not been a bigger kind of physical moment to try and reset the order of the game a little bit'. Advertisement Just getting to a higher position and staying there, having five minutes of more intensity, get against them, hit them. Sometimes you lose a ball higher up, somebody slips away and you go, 'You're going on the ground, my friend'. Create maybe a little bit of chaos. 'Get the referee involved in the game, from the point of view that you've got the experience to handle that and provoke them a little bit. Remind them that football has got other things to it — not everything is how you build up and how you press.' Cathro starts thinking about his half-time team talks from no earlier than 41 minutes in. In Luis Enrique's position, he says he would be demanding more 'same-side work, rather than trying to get around to the opposite side'. Inzaghi, Cathro thinks, should call on desperate measures in desperate times. 'Rip the piece of paper up and start again. I'd be adapting completely and I'd be going on top of them. 'He knows a point must come where this game has to be provoked in a completely different way. 'Inzaghi knows, if his team gets a little bit more unstable, you shoot (for a comeback) too soon and it rebounds, the game's over'. With the score unchanged at 60 minutes, PSG start to drop deeper and Cathro says his focus would be on pressing, 'because right now you're fighting the beginning of a comeback. Everything's got to come out (physically) in the next three to five minutes'. There are two minor, ultimately inconsequential moments, first from Joao Neves and then Nuno Mendes, which he quickly verbalises a dislike for. 'That would piss me off — Neves tried to half-volley a pass in behind. Because those little things could be like a virus. I'd be losing my voice making sure he looked at me for eye contact for a split second.' My head is actually in my notebook on 76 minutes because PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has just caught an inswinging Inter corner and is laying on the ball. 'Nuno Mendes has just slapped an awful pass across the pitch, which would send me insane,' Cathro says. I look up and rewind. Under no real pressure, he underhit a Hollywood pass to substitute Bradley Barcola, and Inter are attacking again. But PSG are 4-0 up. Cathro says 'the game is over'. Why does it matter? 'You're trying to stay on top of this. You don't want s*** decisions to slip in, you don't want arrogance, you don't want the lack of concentration, you don't s****y bouncing passes. You want to be on it. 'I want 10 minutes of clean, controlled, stand-tall, chest-out, 'We are the champions, we will play that way'. No s***, don't want any s***e. It finishes 4-0.' Advertisement Only once does he take any real pleasure from an attacking action: Vitinha on 62 minutes when he sprints over to take a free kick short in PSG's own half. He plays one-twos with Hakimi and Marquinhos, the latter finding him with his back to goal against the press, and the No 6 turns before he splits Inter with a pass to Dembele's feet. Then he runs on to complete another one-two from Dembele's backheel, and threads through Doue with PSG on a three-v-two overload. The pass is so well weighted that the teenager, sprinting, can finish one-touch past Sommer at the near post. It's Desire Doue's world and we're just living in it 🌟 The 19-year-old makes it two goals and an assist in the Champions League final 🔥 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 31, 2025 Presumably owing to the coaching Cathro gave Vitinha when he was on loan at Wolves in 2020-21? 'No, it's not! He'd done that himself, that goal,' he responds, enthusing about 'the intensity in all of his positioning and all of his actions and all his asks for the ball, deep in his own half, to then decide, 'I'll actually run forward'. It changed everything. I thought, 'Why are you running forward?' 'Technically, he had all of those things when he was at Wolves. The intensity he didn't have, or the taking responsibility aspect. It was just going through time. We didn't really do much for him. 'He certainly would have wanted a lot more out of his time at Wolves — you're a really talented kid that comes through an academy, always winning, always playing, then you arrive at a club and Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves are the two midfielders, so you're not playing. They're playing, and it's as simple as that. Because they're better. 'But it was an important year for him. He probably needed the difficulty and the sort of realisation of how difficult it is, and that's probably what happened. He grew up a lot, it got him ready for when he went back to Porto and he really excelled.' Cathro summarises it as 'a game where a team playing fearless and being themselves outdoes the more wise, strategic approach — I think that's healthy for football. 'PSG finally winning with this team is also healthy. A young, hungry, obviously highly talented, high-potential team, that functions a lot more as a team.' Advertisement When the camera cuts to a crestfallen Inzaghi, I ask if coaches naturally empathise with others in those difficult moments. 'Everybody watching this game knows that this is a good Inter team and a fully-grown man who knows exactly what he's doing — he doesn't need anybody's pity.' It is not unempathetic but the cut-throat realism that elite coaches need. 'It's been a game of football and it's fallen to a certain side because of maybe three or four things. You're on the wrong side of it today, mate. Life goes on.' What does he reckon Inzaghi's thinking right before the final whistle? 'I'm wanting the press conference to finish and I want to go on holiday.'
