Roland Garros 2023: Stephens, Gauff, Pera reach women's singles fourth round

Three Americans will fly the flag for Team USA in the singles fourth round at Roland Garros, with Sloane Stephens, Coco Gauff and Bernarda Pera all advancing to the last 16. Stephens and Gauff are both former finalists in Paris—Stephens in 2018 and Gauff last year—while Pera is though to her first Grand Slam fourth round.

Stephens, who upset 16th seed Karolina Pliskova in her opening match, dropped her first set of the tournament on Friday against Yulia Putintseva but responded with a strong finish in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory. The American broke serve seven times on 10 chances to book her place in the Roland Garros fourth round for the ninth time.

In order to reach her fourth French Open quarterfinal in the last six years, she will need to earn her first career win against second seed Aryna Sabalenka.

"I think it will be a great match. Obviously in the fourth round of a Slam on my favorite surface. Obviously she's been playing some great ball this year, even though she's been going through a lot," Stephens said of the reigning Australian Open and Madrid champion, against whom she is 0-3.

"I hope we're on a good court, and just really looking forward to it. It's obviously another opportunity to go out there and play and try to make the quarters of a Grand Slam. Who doesn't want to do that?"

As the elder statesmen in the high-profile third-round match, the 20-year-old Gauff said the key to her victory was her unwavering belief in her game.

"I think just keeping and trusting in my shots and my game plan,' she said when asked what fueled the turnaround. "I feel like in the first I gave myself so many opportunities to close it out and I came up short on a few points, but I knew the way I was playing and the direction I was going that I would have been able to get the second.

"Then the third is always tough because... you don't know if she's gonna make an adjustment or not, but I just tried to stay with my game plan."

Next up for Gauff, who is bidding to reach the Roland Garros quarters for the third straight year, is a matchup with Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Beyond that, a 2022 final rematch with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek could await in the quarterfinals.